


Big Hero 8 Book 2

by RustyJeans



Series: Big Hero 8 [2]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Family, Friendship, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Platonic Relationships, Protective Siblings, Sequel, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 41
Words: 106,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27748423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RustyJeans/pseuds/RustyJeans
Summary: Rena and her friends defeated Callaghan. Now they're determined to live normal lives. (Well... apart from Fred.)But will they stay as stubborn about this when strange things start happening to them?(Includes original villain(s) and plotline!)
Series: Big Hero 8 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028097
Comments: 43
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HI! Welcome! If you're not already aware, this is the sequel to another story I have published on my profile. So if you haven't read that one, go do that and then come read this one. I promise it's worth it :)

'Why did you drag me out here? It's FREEZING.' Rena snapped, disgruntled. It was late, she should be at home right now drinking coffee and studying for her chemistry test with Honey Lemon and Tadashi. But instead, she was in the middle of the city in her superhero gear. With Fred.

It was safe to say that she was not very happy about it.

'Rena, we need to protect the city! It is our sworn duty as superheroes to protect the citizens that dwell here!'

Rena sped up slightly to catch him, he was bounding ahead in his excitement. 'Right.. Fred, I hate to break it to you but that whole deal with Callaghan was like, a month ago. It's over, we're not superheroes!'

'Well not with that attitude we're not!'

'FRED! I swear to god-' She yelled as he jumped to the top of a rooftop. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, squinting at the bright light in the darkness.

Tadashi: Where are you? We're meant to be studying?

You: ye i know. be there soon, doing something w fred.

Tadashi: That sounds suspicious. Don't be long cause Honey's brought cookies and they're rapidly disappearing.

You: fatass.

You: jk :)

Tadashi: :(

She slid her phone in her pocket again and craned her neck up to look at Fred atop the building. Reluctantly, she used her plasma to scale the building and she clambered on top of the rooftop to stand next to him. She straightened out and looked out across the city.

'Huh. It is beautiful.' The lights twinkled attractively in the darkness and the air was still up above the tiny cars and people below them. In the distance, she could see the Golden Gate bridge and various neon fast food signs.

'Okay yeah, but do you see any supervillains? Everyone knows that the best place to spot one is obviously at the top of a high building!'

Rena facepalmed. 'Fred, we're not superheroes! We haven't sworn to protect the city or some shit-'

A loud crash from the alley below them made her stop mid-sentence. She ran to the side of the building, Fred hot on her heels. She dropped to her knees and peered over the side of the building. Below them, a stranger was dressed in black and he (or she, but the posture suggested male) was pacing up and down the narrow alley. Rena gave Fred a quizzical look and he pointed down to a small collection of dustbins that clearly belonged to some kind of restaurant in the area. They were... glowing? They lit up the alleyway with a luminescent green colour. The man strode towards them, hauling up the lid of the one closest to him and peering inside. He reached in, and the light was stopped as he pulled something out of the trash and tucked it away inside his coat. Rena could hear him faintly muttering to himself but she didn't have the faintest idea of what he was saying. Then, he turned on his heel and he was gone.

'Wait what?! Where'd he go?!' Rena whisper-yelled, still in shock about what they had just witnessed. Meanwhile, Fred was punching the air behind him, absolutely behind himself with excitement.

'SEE! I TOLD you! This city is crawling with villains and we need to capture them!'

'I swear, stop this! Fred, forget about that guy. It was probably nothing, just some random guy collecting some drugs or material for an invention or something. Besides, it's not like we can find him. Baymax wasn't here to scan him this time.' She felt a twinge of sadness as she said this. It had been a while since Baymax had 'died' in the portal, and Hiro and Tadashi were trying to recreate him together, but it was taking ages. You'd think that they would have the advantage this time, but the healthcare chip that Tadashi had so carefully programmed was lost somewhere in that strange, alternate universe. 10,000 medical procedures took a long time to programme.

'But RENAAA!' Fred whined dramatically, 'I wanna be a superhero and this guy is a villain! We need to find him!'

'If you want to find him, be my guest buddy. But I have a test tomorrow and I need to get home.' She turned away from him and pulled out her phone. 10:56. Wow, they had been out there a lot longer than she'd thought. She sighed, looks like it was gonna be another all-nighter. Whoopie.  
\------------------------------------

'Question 17 was, like, the only difficult one on there.' Honey Lemon said matter of factly, stabbing her salad leaves with her plastic cafeteria fork.

'Speak for yourself!' Rena grumbled. They were at lunch, having just taken their test. In her opinion, it certainly wasn't as easy as Honey Lemon was saying. But, it could have been worse.

'Aww come on!' Tadashi said, elbowing her. 'You said that last time and you got 97%!'

'STILL!' Rena protested, budging along the bench as Gogo and Wasabi came to join them.

'Hey!' Gogo said, spitting her gum out into the nearby trash can so she could eat her sandwich. 'What we talking about?'

'The chemistry test we just had! You know-'

'Yeah I'm already bored.' Gogo interrupted, stretching out across the bench. 'Sorry.' She tore into her sandwich and Honey Lemon eyed her reproachfully.

'You know, it would be a lot better for the environment if you went vegan - or at least vegetarian!' She added hastily when she saw the look on Gogo's face. 'There are so many benefits to it! You would be less cruel to the animals, it's a lot healthier...' She listed off a great long list of 'benefits' to being vegan and Gogo rolled her eyes. Rena sniggered as Honey Lemon lectured Gogo and she turned on her. 'You too Rena! We have a responsibility to help ourselves and this plant and-'

Rena held up her hands. 'Keep me out of this. You know I'm never giving up my Aunt's hot wings!'

'Too right!' Tadashi butted in, 'she makes the absolute best chicken!'

'To be fair, they do have a good point.' Added Wasabi helpfully, and Honey Lemon glared at him. 'Hey, I'm just telling the truth!'

'Oh look here comes Hiro!' Gogo said quickly, 'let's focus on that instead!'

'Hey.' Hiro said, sliding in next to Fred on the bench. 'What'd I miss?'

'Not much.' Rena said, picking at her sandwich.

'Now that the gang's all here...' Fred said, a stupidly big grin plastered on his face. 'The city needs us!'

Rena groaned, 'Fred, we're not getting involved with your stupid schemes to be superheroes!'

'Keep your voice down!' Hissed Gogo as a couple of people turned to stare at them, 'do you want the whole cafeteria thinking that we're weird?'

'They already do.' Rena said, 'we hang around with Fred and a 14 year old kid. No offence guys.' She added as Hiro shot her an outraged look.

'Back to the SUBJECT AT HAND...' Fred started.

Tadashi clapped a hand on his shoulder. 'Not happening buddy. Sorry.'

'Yeah sorry Freddie, but I'm out too.' Honey Lemon said, looking as though saying this was causing her actual pain. To be fair, knowing Honey Lemon, it probably was.

Fred looked crestfallen. 'You guys are so boring! What if another supervillain struck? THEN would you?'

Rena snorted. 'Yeah, because I heard that supervillains pop up all the time to try kill your family! Face it Fred, this is real life. Not one of your comic books. But sure, if it makes you happy then yeah.'

'Well if Callaghan breaks out of prison then we'll need to stop him! I reckon he's smart enough to manage it!' Fred said loudly, clinging onto his only hope of actually being a superhero.

'Oh my god SHUT UP!' Gogo snapped as a couple of people turned around to stare at them. 'Fred, people here are actually smart. They'll figure it out eventually.'

'Yeah.' Said Wasabi, turning his head from side to side anxiously, as though he was afraid that people would pounce on them. 'And don't go shouting about Callaghan being a raving loony with his daughter hanging around. It may not sit very well.'

Abigail Callaghan had been at SFIT for only a week. She'd recovered surprisingly quickly from her coma, and had gone straight back to looking for employment. She got some money from her imprisoned Father, but it wasn't nearly enough to live on. She was an ex-student at SFIT, previously taught by Granville. Granville had taken pity on her and hired her as a kind of assistant teacher. It was her job to act as an extra pair of hands for the students - at basically any time of the day she could be found in the student lab, both encouraging students with their work and working on her own stuff. The kids at SFIT didn't often need actual help, they just wanted new ideas. Abigail was perfect for that, she literally was a mini version of her Father. As well as everyone else on the planet, she was clueless about the identities of her saviours. Which was good, because if she knew then it probably would have been very awkward. In fact, she never even spoke about what had happened to her, and she never publicly advertised the fact that Callaghan was her Father. Rena didn't blame her, but because of this silence they never actually knew if she was very close with him. Despite this, she probably wouldn't appreciate students boasting about how much they hated him or how crazy they thought the old professor was.

'Anyway!' Honey Lemon said quickly, clearly trying to change the subject before Fred outed them as accidental superheroes to the entire school. 'Anyone down to do something tonight? That film we wanted to see is finally at the movies.'

Rena started to accept this offer when Hiro answered first. 'No can do, sorry. Tadashi and I are staying back tonight to work on Baymax.'

Rena whirled around to look at Tadashi. 'What? Again? You didn't tell me about this!'

'Sorry! I forgot!'

She bit back a sarcastic retort, not wanting to argue with him. Deep down, however, it stung. She knew that working on Baymax was important to him but they had spent the last few weeks blowing her off to work on the robot. She had offered to help but they had insisted that they didn't need it, leaving her alone in the empty apartment when Aunt Cass was hosting book club or poetry night or a 'fun cafe quiz!'

'Tomorrow then?' Honey Lemon said, producing a pink notebook out of her handbag and scribbling something down. Everyone around the table murmered their agreement and she snapped it shut, satisfied. 'I'll text you all the details!'

'Hang on is that a daily planner?' Gogo sniggered, 'what are you, 80? Who actually uses a daily planner?'

Honey Lemon stiffened. 'It helps me to stay organised!'

'Yeah what's the issue?' Asked Wasabi, 'I have one!'

Gogo snorted. 'Yeah. That explains a lot, actually.'

They bickered about this for the next few minutes but Rena sat back, ignoring them completely. This sort of stuff happened literally happened every 10 minutes so she had become pretty accustomed to tuning them out completely. However, today it was just a hell of a lot more annoying than normal. maybe that was just her, but she found that she couldn't stand it after just a couple of minutes. She stood and tipped the rest of her lunch into the trash.

'I'm going to my lab. I'll see you in a bit.'

She ignored their questions and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She made her way across the cafeteria and pulled out her phone, checking the time. She still had half an hour of lunch left and decided she may as well make good use of her time and work on her project. However, she found that as soon as she opened the door to her private lab all motivation was sucked out of her. Instead, she collapsed at her desk and shoved some papers aside. Resting her head on the desk, she debated about whether or not it was worth going to sleep. But she decided against it - she'd done it once before and missed the bell. It was fun explaining to Granville why she was 30 minutes late to her class because she had fallen asleep.

Instead, she sat up and picked up a random notebook that she had previously thrown on her desk. She rested her feet on the desk and thumbed through the pages until she found a blank one. She grabbed a pencil from the pot by her laptop and sat with it poised over the paper.

'Come on.' She muttered to herself, tapping it against the blank page impatiently, 'think of something!' But no ideas came to her. Nothing at all - not even the hint of an invention or even what to do for Granville's stupid project. She wanted them to create a defence mechanism for a seaside building in the event of a flood. It was a task just specific enough to make it actually difficult, they had to make sure it was under a certain cost and she had forbidden them from working together, they had to cater to certain foundations, etc. Rena was expecting it to be easy, but she set it over a week ago and as far as she was concerned, she was the only person who hadn't come up with a single idea. Sighing, she slammed the book down on her desk in defeat. For just a second, she debated about going to Abigail for help. But she quickly shook it off, Abigail probably would just tell Granville and she'd get marked down. Besides, she wanted to avoid talking to the girl as much as possible. Even the mention of her name brought up bad memories of the fight that she'd definitely rather forget.

Rena was so busy brooding grumpily that she didn't notice someone leaning in the doorway, arms folded and staring at her. He cleared his throat and she jumped, her phone slipping out of her pocket onto the floor with a clatter. She swore and bent down to pick it up, but he was there before her. Deftly swiping it from under her nose, he straightened out and looked at the screen briefly before passing it to her. She snatched it from him, mumbling a quick thanks as she stuffed it into her pocket. He stepped back, holding his hands up in mock defeat at her hostility and she felt a little embarrassed. He looked a couple of years older than Tadashi, so she deducted pretty fast that he probably wasn't a student. He had blonde hair that flopped over his forehead, horn-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose and a piercing in his nose. His face was kind and dusted with freckles and he was wearing jeans, a battered old pair of converse and an old t shirt with the logo of a band on. Rena vaguely recognised it as one of the rock bands that Gogo listened to. Looking at him, though, you wouldn't expect this guy to be anything like Gogo. Where Gogo was actually kinda intimidating (although Rena would never admit this to her), this guy seemed to be nothing but friendly.

He extended an arm out and Rena shook his hand. 'Hi. My name's Cain.' His voice was a bit deeper than she'd expected.

'Uh, hey.' She replied, more out of politeness than actually wanting to get to know him. 'I'm Ren-'

She looked into his eyes and faltered, dropping his hand. She recognised those eyes from somewhere - she just had no idea where. They were a stormy grey, and they looked a little dead behind the glasses. Something about those eyes had thrown her off completely and it was a second before she realised that she was just staring at him with a mingled look of shock and confusion on her face. She tore her eyes away, desperately trying to think where she recognised the guy from. The more she looked at him, the more familiar he seemed.

He chuckled. 'Hi Ren. Nice to meet you.'

'It's Rena. Sorry.' She said, slightly embarrassed. Great. She'd only just met the guy and she'd already embarrassed herself. So much for good first impressions.

'Rena.' He said, nodding. 'Nice name. Means 'joyous melody', am I right?'

Rena stared at him. She had no idea what her name meant. Funnily enough, she had never actually gotten round to asking her parents what her name meant. It wasn't really something that you tended to think about at the tender age of 7. But she decided not to mention this. She felt as though the whole 'dead parents' thing might put a damper on things. 'Uh, yeah, I think so.'

'Cool. Anyway, I just came by to say hi. I've just been recruited to be one of the lab assistants, working with Abigail Callaghan.'

'Oh right. I didn't realise we were getting any more of those.' Rena said. She knew she sounded unenthusiastic but she didn't really care. Why did Granville keep wasting the budget on hiring helpers that they simply did not need? Also, this guy and his too familiar eyes and posture and face shape was unnerving and she wanted him to leave so she could focus on her project.

'Yeah well. Here I am!' He said brightly, sticking his hands in his pockets and rocking back on the balls of his feet. 'Anyway, I'll be off now. Callaghan said she'd give me a tour, just thought I'd come introduce myself! Catch you around, Rena Hamada.'

And before she even opened her mouth to say goodbye he had gone. Later, she would wonder how he knew her last name when she did not recall giving it to him. Instead, she didn't even bother to think about it. She lifted her phone out her pocket and glanced at the text she'd received just before Cain had come into the room.

Tadashi: You coming back this evening with me and Hiro?

You: idk. why?

Tadashi: Aunt Cass wants to know.

You: yeah i can do then. i need to work on this project anyway

Tadashi: Cool. Also, you alright Squish? How come you stormed off?

You: i was until you called me that

Tadashi: Oh come off it, you drama queen.

You: fuck off

Tadashi: Wow okay. Watch the tone if you want a ride home!

You: lmao alright then

She slipped her phone back in her pocket as the bell rang. She put her bag back on and clicked the light off. Double advanced mathematics now. Yay.


	2. Chapter 2

A few hours later, Rena was sat on the kitchen counter. She had a mug of coffee clasped in her hands whilst she was listening to Hiro and Tadashi talk back and forth about what they were going to do with Baymax later that evening. She was listening intently, occasionally butting in with her thoughts on what they should be adding to the chip. Tadashi had notes and hard-drives on Baymax - everything that he needed for the robot was stored in a single laptop. Everything they needed to completely rebuild the robot in a matter of days. The problem was that he'd taken it to the showcase and left it there. So now everything on said laptop was lost and all they had to go on for a completely new robot was in notebooks. Rena used to tease him about it until she realised that he was actually really torn about it and had promptly decided to stop. She still thought it was idiotic that he had never thought to back anything up anywhere else, it was so uncharacteristic of him. But she couldn't really blame him. That laptop was his life, and she was willing to bet money on it being half the reason he ran back into the fire in the first place. Of course he couldn't have predicted that it would melt in a fire - who would have?

'I have a few initial ideas and thoughts in a couple of notebooks on campus.' Tadashi said. He lent back in his chair and swirled his tea in its mug. 'It's all I have though.'

'Well it's a start. I had a few improvements noted down actually, whilst we're completely rebuilding him we might as well incorporate them.' Hiro replied. He'd kicked his shoes off and was sat back with his feet on the table, twirling a pen in his hand as he scrawled down notes.

'Oh yeah?' Tadashi sat forwards and set his mug down on the table. He swung his arm out and swiped Hiro's legs so they fell off the table and landed on the floor with a thud. 'What you got?'

Hiro yelped and then quickly composed himself, scowling at his older brother. 'For starters, laser eyes.'

Rena snorted. 'I can get behind that.'

'Yeah! Like, oh you don't believe in vaccines? ZAP! Suck it up and let me stab you.'

'What do you mean you don't want healthcare from a huge, untrained marshmallow? I will ZAP you for the pure AUDACITY!'

Tadashi frowned as they cackled at the idea of Baymax with lasers. 'How about we don't do that?'

'You're so boring! Fine, what about him looking less like a giant marshmallow?'

'But he's designed that way on purpose! I don't want him to look threatening.'

'Yeah but-'

'Nope. The vinyl is non-negotiable.'

'What about rocket boosters-'

'Hiro you're banned from suggesting anything else.' Tadashi said, rolling his eyes at his brother's immaturity.

Hiro huffed dramatically and slammed his notebook down on the table. 'Well if you won't accept my suggestions then I'm going to someone that will!' He turned and thundered up the stairs to their bedroom.

'WHO?' Rena called to his retreating back.

'FRED!'

Two hours later, they were sat in Tadashi's lab at SFIT. Rena was sat in the windowsill, pen in one hand and her phone in the other. A notebook was balanced precariously on her knee. Tadashi was sat at his desk near the door and Hiro was sat with his back to the wall on the floor next to his sister, marvelling his older brother's lab. 

'How do you keep your lab so clean?'

'Because I'm not feral like you two.'

'Feral's a bit mean. I'd say... more adventurous.'

'Uh huh.'

Rena rolled her eyes at their bickering. Although, Hiro did have a point. Tadashi's lab was freakishly clean. Like, there wasn't even a speck of dust on the window. Rena had always been jealous of Tadashi's lab. Not because of how weirdly clean it was. No, it was because he had the best lab in the entire school. It may sound like an overreaction but no other lab had the same view as Tadashi did. Also, it was the closest lab to the public lab and therefore the storage cupboards. Where Rena was situated, it was a ten minute walk just to come over and grab a spare battery or two. Tadashi had only been given the lab because he was Callaghan's favourite but Rena couldn't help but feel jealous as she looked out of the window at the city lights twinkling in the early evening darkness. She turned her attention back to the task at hand. She was writing up the ingredients of a number of antibacterial sprays to input in Baymax's database. She squinted at the spray bottle that she was holding and noted down a couple more ingredients before tossing it onto the pile of noted down bottles. Three down, a hell of a lot more to go. She sighed and picked up another bottle, peering at the small text before scribbling it down. It was dull work but it had to be done. Besides, she was only doing it because Hiro had refused to.

Hiro was sat on the floor at her feet, chewing a pencil. He was filling in an order form for materials they would need to make the inner skeleton of the robot. Rena leaned over his shoulder and whistled.

'That's gonna cost us a lot.'

'Won't they cover it if we say it's for a project?'

'Callaghan might have done, but not Granville. The budget is stretched thin already.'

'Okay.' He sucked his teeth, then drew a line across the page. 'I'll ask her to cover this much,' he pointed to just under half of the materials, 'and we can cover this part.'

'Hiro.' Rena said, squinting at the prices. 'That's going to cost us almost a thousand dollars. I hate to break it to you, but we don't have that much money.'

'Don't worry, we'll manage. I'll cover it.'

Rena narrowed her eyes at him. 'How?'

'I've been saving!' She gave him a suspicious look and he quickly added, 'I've been doing jobs around and about.'

She was about to question him further when Tadashi called her over. He was sitting hunched over his computer and was typing codes frantically. he thrust a list into her hand.

'Could you grab these for me? I'd do it myself but..' He gestured to where his prosthetic was leaning against the desk.

'Yeah, course.' She started towards the door and then stopped in the doorway, 'don't run off whilst I'm gone.'

Tadashi shook his head, grinning and she smirked. She glanced at the list clutched in her hand as she made her way down the dark corridor. A few types of batteries, screws, a sheet of iron. The basic stuff she expected when building a robot. She wasn't huge on building robots, that was always more her brother's kind of thing. She preferred chemistry. Setting stuff on fire and combining random chemicals to create something entirely new. Yeah, that was her kinda thing. She smiled as she remembered accidentally flooding the lab with pink foam with Honey Lemon. Technically, they hadn't meant to. Rena wasn't paying any attention and added hydrochloride acid instead of sulphuric. Still, it was funny. The memory of Wasabi running around with pink hair never failed to make her laugh, even almost a year later. You couldn't easily achieve that with robots.

Sure, she still enjoyed constructing robots. She'd grown up with Tadashi and Hiro, after all. For as long as she could remember, she'd been caught in the middle of their inventions. She'd help Hiro construct those rocket boosters for Mochi and helped Tadashi figure out what was wrong with his jet-powered sled when it just exploded instead of sending them whizzing down the hill. However, two robot geniuses in the house was enough, they definitely did not need a third.

She was so busy reminiscing about their past inventions that she didn't notice that someone had turned the hallway lights on. She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness. She'd reached the storeroom, and was just about to slip inside when she heard footsteps. Rena whirled around and saw Caine jogging towards her, grinning.

'Hey, Hamada! How's it going?'

'Oh, hi! Um, yeah, it's going good.'

'Good stuff.' He replied, rubbing his hands together as he approached. 'Going in here?'

She nodded. 'Yeah, just grabbing some stuff for my brother.'

'Brother?' He asked as she held the door open for him.

Rena clicked the light on and grabbed a cardboard box lying discarded to the side. 'Tadashi Hamada, he's in the year above. Oh, and Hiro. He's a freshman.'

'Wow! The brains run in the family, huh?'

'Yeah, you could say that. Hiro's only fourteen and all.'

She jumped at the sound of glass smashing. She dropped the screwdriver she was holding into her box and looked at Caine. He'd been holding a bottle of something that he'd just dropped onto the floor. For a second, he just stared at her. Then he seemed to come to his senses and gave out a nervous laugh.

'Whoops! Stupid butterfingers.' He cursed, bending down to pick up the larger chunks of glass.

'Careful!' Rena exclaimed, 'don't want to cut yourself, it's literally broken glass.'

Caine shrugged. 'It's fine.'

Rena rolled her eyes and grabbed a broom. The janitor had learnt the hard way that it was simply best to leave stuff in there for the students to clean up their own messes. She tossed it to him and he began sweeping up the mess.

'So,' he said, 'fourteen, huh? Kid must be a genius.'

Rena turned back to the shelves and grabbed a box of screws. 'Well, that;s one way to put it. He's smarter than everyone in my classes put together.'

'Is he the scrawny kid? Huge mop of black hair? Wears a navy hoodie most of the time?'

'That's the one.'

She turned back to Caine and caught a glimpse of his face. He looked... hungry? Angry? Vengeful? She blinked and the expression was gone. She silently told herself off. She was being paranoid. This guy was just a dumb helper trying to make conversation. There was nothing to worry about.

Caine tipped the glass into the bin and put the broom back. 'What are you doing here so late anyway?'

Rena silently willed him to shut up. He was nice enough but she couldn't be bothered for polite small talk. Besides, the conversation felt very one-sided. It was more like an interrogation, she barely managed to get a word in edge-ways, let alone ask him anything about why he was here and why he was so interested in her little brother. 'Oh, you know. Just catching up on stuff. Helping Tadashi with his project.'

'Stealing my job, huh?' He replied.

Rena laughed. 'Well, what are you doing here if you're such a great helper?'

'Okay fair enough. Just grabbing some stuff for a freshman I'm helping.'

Rena nodded. She grabbed the last handful of batteries and edged around him to the door. 'Well, I'd best be going. Nice talking to you.'

'Hang on! I'll walk back with you.'

She fought down the urge to just run off and leave him on his own. If she was any less polite then she would have done. Instead, she stood outside the door and waited for him to click the lights off and follow her out. Seriously, how long did it take to grab one thing?

'So, what are you working on?' He asked, falling into step beside her.

'It's basically a healthcare robot. My older brother made one but then he got... lost. So I'm helping him to remake it. Oh, and so is Hiro.'

'Cool! Would you say that you're close then?'

Who cares? Why are you so intrusive? 'Uhh, yeah. We're real close.'

'That's good. I wish my brothers and I were close but we all hate each other, haha.'

'Oh. Sorry.'

'No, don't be!'

'Okay I take it back then.'

Caine laughed. 'Fine, laugh at my tragic backstory! I see how it is!'

Rena snorted. 'Trust me, no one knows tragic backstories better than me.'

'Ah yeah? Try me.'

'My parents both died in a car crash when I was seven.'

'Oh-'

'And my brother was in that fire back in July and was in a coma for a month.' Shit! Why am I telling him this? I barely know him. Oh God, now he's gonna be all sympathetic and sorry for it. Jesus.

Caine opened his mouth and Rena mentally braced herself for the awkwardness.

'Well. You win.'

'Is it really winning?'

'I guess not. Sorry.'

She laughed. 'No I'm sorry. You've known me for five minutes and you already know my life story.'

'I guess it makes sense that you're all so close then.'

'Yep. We pretty much only have each other, aside from my Aunt Cass.'

They'd arrived at the student lab. Caine rested his hand on the doorhandle and studied her. 'Interesting.'

'What?'

'You. You're interesting.'

'Thanks?'

'See you around Hamada.'

He slipped into the lab before she had the chance to say goodbye. She shook her head and continued her walk to Tadashi's lab. Well, that was weird. Why was he so interested in her? She was just a random student among the sea of hundreds. And that look on his face when she talked about Hiro...

She brushed it off. No, she was definitely just being paranoid. She'd felt more protective of her family than ever since Callaghan, it was probably just that old fear speaking for itself. No one was out to get them. She needed to relax.

'Guess who's back!' She sang as she kicked the door open.

'Finally.' Hiro muttered, not looking up from his notebook. 'You were gone ages!'

'Awww, did you miss me?'

'Loads.' He replied sarcastically.

Rena ignored his sarcasm and placed the box on Tadashi's desk. The stuff inside rolled about and the noise finally tore his eyes away from his computer. Rena glanced at the screen and was met with a hundred different equations and codes that looked foreign to her. She could definitely figure it out if she had time but this stuff didn't come as naturally to her as it did the other two Hamadas. She ignored the coding and went back over to her corner. She picked up another bottle of spray and noted down the ingredients.

They worked in almost complete silence. Rena absent-mindlessly began to tap her page with the end of her pen, creating the beat for a song she knew but couldn't quite place the name of. Hiro joined in with his pencil, and then Tadashi with the end of his screwdriver. It was something they'd done for years and had originated when Tadashi would do his homework at the kitchen table and tap out songs whilst he was doing it. Other people found the habit annoying but Rena thought it was comforting.

An hour passed without a word passing anyone's lips. Rena had finished with her bottles of spray and was scrolling through Twitter instead of being useful and working on something else. Her finger was hovering over the retweet button when someone stood in the doorway cleared their throat loudly and her phone slipped out of her fingers and clattered onto the floor.

Rena bent down to pick it up and was about to curse the person who had entered the lab when she realised that it was Professor Granville. She bit back her retort and sat back in her chair. Granville was the replacement dean, having been appointed straight after Callaghan had 'died.' She was harsh and cold, nothing like Callaghan had been when he was dean. Rena swallowed nervously. The foreboding woman had fixed her with a piercing stare so intense that the teen felt as though she could read her inner thoughts.

'Good evening Professor.' Tadashi said politely. 'To what do we owe the pleasure?'

'Evening to you too, Mr Hamada.' The professor replied curtly. 'I am merely here to inquire why you are here at such a late hour.'

Rena stared at her. Why was she asking that? SFIT students had always been allowed back on campus after hours. It had been a rule that had been in place since before she even started. What, did she think they were up to something that they shouldn't be? Until she'd arrived, they'd literally been sat in silence! 'Professor, Hiro and I are just assisting Tadashi on his project. I thought we were allowed to be here at this time. Has there been a rule change that we have not been made aware of?'

'No, not at all.' Granville replied, 'I just like to know what my students are up to is all. May I ask what you're working on?'

'Oh, just recreating Baymax.' Tadashi said. 'The healthcare robot I made.'

'Ah yes, I remember Baymax well. An excellent project, Mr Hamada. You should be proud, I know you worked very hard.'

Tadashi looked surprised. Granville wasn't exactly the one to be giving out compliments like that. 'Thank you Professor.'

Granville smiled at him for a second, but it wasn't as warm as it could have been. She glanced at Hiro for a second. The fourteen-year-old shrank back slightly, quite obviously nervous of the strict dean. Her eyes moved over to Rena who smiled at her warily.

'If you don't mind, I would like a word with you, Miss Hamada. And Tadashi, if it's not too much of a bother. Outside, please.'

She turned on her heel and stood in the corridor waiting for them. Rena rose, sharing an anxious glance with her older brother. She stepped forwards and handed Tadashi his prosthetic. He attached it quickly and Rena grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. He smiled at her and exited the room behind Granville. Rena wiped her already sweating palms on her jeans and followed him outside, leaving Hiro alone. Rena shut the door behind her and tried not to look scared when the dean faced the pair of them.

'Do not worry, neither of you are in any trouble.' Granville assured them. Rena exhaled slowly. Clearly the professor was more observant than she thought. 'An issue has arisen concerning your brother, Hiro.'

Tadashi stiffened beside Rena. She knew instantly that his older brother instincts were going to kick in and he would have some kind of internal breakdown. Another reason to get this conversation over with as fast as possible. 'An issue? What kind of issue?'

'Does your brother have any kind of... gambling issues?'

Rena felt like she'd been punched. No.. he wasn't. There was no way he was botfighting already. At least not on campus... surely? Tadashi didn't speak and Rena realised this was all going to be down to her. She cleared her throat nervously, deliberating over her answer. A tiny part of her wanted to tell Granville the truth but she decided against it. Nah, she wasn't in the mood for ratting him out for illegal activity. 'Um, no Professor. Not that we're aware of, why do you ask?'

'I have had a couple of reports from concerned members of the student body illustrating him taking bets on silly little matters such as who was going to get a higher grade on the pop quiz and which team was going to win the football game. I wish to point out that not only is this behaviour dangerous, it will also not be accepted here on campus. Kindly inform your brother that he if he wishes to continue studying here then he must stop this behaviour immediately.'

Rena blinked. Dangerous? How dangerous could it be? And who'd been ratting out a fourteen-year-old kid when she knew for a fact that betting happened literally all the time. What did Granville expect when she has hundreds of super intelligent, super competitive kids on campus? 'I'm sorry professor, but why can't you tell him this yourself?'

Granville eyed her coldly from over the top of her glasses. 'I suspect that he may only listen if it comes from someone like you two. I could tell him myself, if you would prefer that?'

'Um, no that's okay. Thank you for telling us Professor, we'll let him know.' She elbowed Tadashi who gave a small mumble of agreement.

'Thank you Miss Hamada. Good evening to you both.' The professor replied. She gave them a quick nod and then began walking briskly back to her office. Neither Hamada spoke until the sounds of her clicking heels had disappeared.

'I'm gonna kill him.' Tadashi said angrily.

'Hey, calm down. He's not botfighting, he's just placing a couple of stupid bets! Really, she's overreacting. I've had loads of bets with Gogo on who's essay will get the highest grade.'

'How do you know he's not botfighting? And you heard her, she'll kick him out. He's being so casual about being accepted here! Does he not realise that there's a massive waiting list and they'll kick him out even of he puts a toe out of line?'

'He's a kid Tadashi. He doesn't have a gambling problem, just calm down a bit. We'll just tell him to stop and then he won't listen so we'll tell him again and he'll still do it but he'll be so subtle as to not get caught again. Just... cut him some slack.'

Tadashi sighed. 'Yeah, you're right. I just worry that's gonna fall down that path again.'

'I know you do. Just have a little faith in him, he won't do it again. Besides, he's too distracted with rebuilding Baymax anyway.'

'True.' But he didn't look convinced.

'Just trust me, alright? Hamada rule 23. Come on, knucklehead.'

She opened the door and was immediately bombarded with questions by her younger brother. 'What did she say? Are we breaking the rules? Are you in trouble? Are we still allowed to build Baymax?'

'Slow down! Don't stress about Baymax, of course we're still allowed to build him.'

Hiro breathed a sigh of relief before knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. 'Then... what did she want to talk to you about?'

'Umm-'

'You.' Tadashi interrupted. Rena was shocked at the intense anger displayed on his face. 'You've been betting.'

The colour drained from Hiro's face as he realised what was going on. 'Hang on, I-'

'What the HELL were you thinking?' He was almost yelling, all calmness he had displayed outside had evaporated.

'Jesus Tadashi calm down!' Rena said. She skirted around the box she had grabbed and put a hand on his shoulder. 'Stop.'

He looked at her and shrank back slightly. 'Explain yourself. Now.'

'I- I wasn't betting! Well, not really. I only bet Harvey that I would beat him in our test next week. If i get a higher score than him, then he has to buy me a can of Pepsi. If he wins, I have to buy him a Coke. That's it! I swear it is.'

Rena looked at Tadashi as he processed this information. She didn't like being the calm one, the reasonable want. It felt weird. 'Okay, well that doesn't sound as bad as Granville was saying it was. But if you're gonna do it, at least be subtle about it because Granville says she'll kick you out if you keep doing it.'

Hiro stepped back, shaking his head. 'Really? She'll kick me out for that?'

'Yeah.' Tadashi said, folding his arms across his chest. 'So stop being such a knucklehead and think about things before you do them. Is that really so hard?'

Hiro's cheeks flushed with shame. 'I'm sorry. I didn't realise it was so frowned upon. It was just for a can of drink, I don't know why she's being so strict about it.'

Rena pondered over asking him why Granville mentioned numerous reports of it but decided not to push it. She didn't want to make Tadashi even more annoyed than he already was.

'Let's just forget about this and keep working. It's only 7 and we have a lot more work to do.'

Hiro nodded and sat back down with his notebook. Tadashi ran his hand through his hair and turned back to the computer screen. They continued working, remaining in silence as they had done before.


	3. Chapter 3

RING!

'Good work today everyone! Remember, I would like questions 1-12 completed by Tuesday. Any problems don't hesitate to email me! Dismissed!'

Rena slid her books into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She opened her phone and made a quick note on the homework before turning to Honey Lemon and linking arms with her.

'Everyone still on for that new pancake place?' Rena asked her. Honey Lemon was usually up to date on these things. She was the one that organised when they met up and where they went and all that boring stuff that Rena couldn't be bothered with.

'Yep! And they have a two for one offer on for students.'

'You're good aren't you?'

'Thank you! I try very hard.'

They met Gogo, Wasabi and Tadashi out in the corridor. Gogo walked next to her, ranting about how she was cheated out of an A+ just because she answered the wrong amount of decimal places.

Rena elbowed her playfully. 'Rookie mistake! You always read the question twice!'

'Yeah well, it's not my fault. This guy came crashing into the classroom about halfway through and from then on my concentration was all wack.'

'What guy?'

'I don't know, one of Abigail's friends. He's meant to be a helper or something but all he did was succeed in being extremely annoying. And he was only in there for like, 10 seconds. Think his name is... Charlie? Cameron? Something beginning with C anyway.'

'Caine?'

'That's it, yeah. Why? You know him?'

Rena shrugged. It had been a week or so since Caine had first introduced himself and the guy didn't seem to leave her alone. She didn't really mind, he was sweet really. Plus, he seemed actually interested in what she had to say. He never seemed to stick around for long though, as soon as Caine caught sight of Hiro he would excuse himself and leave very quickly. But Rena shrugged it off. He was probably just shy or something. A bit weird to be scared of a fourteen-year-old, but it was unfair to hold that against him. For some reason, Hiro often did intimidate strangers. it was probably just a combo of his massive IQ and wide eyes and scared people off. She felt bad for him sometimes even if the youngest Hamada didn't seem to mind it. 'I've talked to him a couple of times, yeah.'

'Oh, I see how it is, trying to replace us with a hot older guy?' Gogo smirked, hitting Rena's arm teasingly.

Rena choked on air. 'I.. what?! No!... You think he's hot?'

Gogo winked and Rena gagged. 'Nope. Nuh-uh. Absolutely not. Honey Lemon, back me up on this!'

'He's not that bad...'

Rena threw her hands in the air dramatically 'ugh! You two!'

'Statistically, you're the weird one here.'

'Just because he's not my type!'

'What is your type then?' Gogo asked her casually.

Rena shrugged, trying to hide her discomfort as best as she could. What was her type? She never really gave any attention to boys, they just annoyed her. She'd much rather just not bother with them... at all. 'Uhhh, I don't know? Not Caine?'

Honey Lemon shook her head. 'Honestly, Hamada, have you ever even kissed anyone?'

Rena laughed nervously. They rounded the corner and she spotted Hiro at the end of the hallway, silently thanking whatever God was out there for this lucky save. 'Hiro!'

Her younger brother turned and grinned at them as he saw them approach. 'Hi!'

'How was maths?'

'God, have you got my timetable memorised? Yeah, it was alright.'

Rena shrugged. She continued walking and Hiro followed her, pushing open the doors and letting the sunlight stream through into the hallway. 'Coming to that new pancake place? What was it called, Smithy's Pancake Bar? Something like that.'

The grin slid off Hiro's face. 'Oh.. that was today? Shoot! Sorry, I promised Harvey that I would work on our project with him tonight.'

'Well, tough luck then buddy.'

'Ah well, I'm sure I can handle missing out just this once. Hey Fred!'

Fred came bounding over to them excitedly, brandishing his shiny new SFIT sign. 'Hey, guys! Let's go straight there because I am STARVING!'

'Fred.. you ate three pizzas for lunch like... an hour ago. I'm surprised you still want to come.' Wasabi said, sounding half disgusted and half impressed.

Fred shrugged. 'You could say it's my superpower. Speaking of-'

'Nope. Not happening, not today.' Tadashi laughed.

'Oh come on! I had an idea, just hear me out. Right, okay. So-'

'And I'm gonna take that as my cue to bounce.' Said Hiro. He hoisted his backpack further up his shoulders and started retreating. 'I'll see you guys later!'

'Don't do anything I wouldn't do!' Rena called after him. He rolled his eyes before turning his back.

'Make sure to call if you need anything!' Tadashi yelled. Hiro ignored him. Rena didn't blame him, she would too. Tadashi turned to his sister. 'Do you think he heard? Should I just text him to make sure?'

'Uhh, no? Stop stressing, he's fine!' Rena said, although he didn't look convinced.

'I'll text him just to make sure.'

Rena rolled her eyes. Ever since Hiro had been caught for gambling, he'd been even more protective than usual. It was starting to get on her nerves a bit, even if she did understand why. Tadashi was terrified of their little brother falling back into botfighting. Rena was as well, especially since the fire. She'd been even more worried about the safety of their tiny family. At least she had the consideration not to be so whiny and annoying about it all the time. 'I don't think that's necessary... like, at all.'

'Well good thing that I don't listen to you then.'

'You should. We all know that I'm the wisest.'

'Wisest? HA! More like weirdest.'

'Bloody hell! Calm down Tadashi, I don't think I'll be able to take much more of a severe mental beating.'

'Oh shut up-'

'Hey guys! Did you hear about my really awesome plan that we're totally doing?' Fred burst into the middle of their conversation and threw his arms around both of them, sandwiching himself in the middle of them. 'Everyone agreed to it!'

'Actually, if I recall, we said no-' Wasabi started but Fred kept talking so that the poor guy couldn't get a word in edge-ways.

'So yeah everyone is really on board with it, as I've said. Okay, so you know how we all really want to be superheroes cause it's really cool and exciting?'

'Umm, no.' Rena answered, but Fred ignored her. She had the feeling that that was intended as a rhetorical question.

'Right, so I say we patrol the city again. All of us this time. Then, we can find that weird guy with his glowing stuff and we can track him down and save the city!'

'Fred!' Rena facepalmed, 'listen, I get your concern but there are many things wrong with that plan.'

'Name one!'

'Okay. Well, firstly, we don't even know if this guy was up to anything evil. What if it was just something innocent that we caught out of context? We can't stalk the city for an innocent person!'

'Yeah, but what if he's not innocent? Then what?'

'Second thing, San Fransokyo is literally massive. How the hell are we going to find one guy when we don't even know what he looks like?'

'Baymax can scan him! He did it with Callaghan, didn't he?'

'One slight problem with that though.' Tadashi said, sliding Fred's arm off his shoulder as he spoke. 'We have no Baymax, and we won't for a long time. Besides, he would be no help if we did anyway! He wasn't with you when you found him, so he wasn't able to scan him.'

Fred's face fell. 'Alright, slight flaw there. But I'm sure we could find him if work hard enough. You're all super smart, why don't you just make an invention to find him?'

'That's not how anything works.'

Fred pouted. 'Fine! I'll find him on my own. But I'll need your help to defeat him once I do find him, will you?'

'Fred-'

'Will you?' He asked again, a lot more insistent this time. 'Please?'

Rena sighed, exchanging a glance with Tadashi. He shrugged and she nodded reluctantly. 'Fine! Will you shut up now?'

'YESSS!' He yelled, punching the air.

Rena sighed. She had only said yes because she knew he would never find that guy on his own. 'I swear to god...' She muttered to herself as she watched him dance along the grass towards where the cars were parked.

'He's gonna do something stupid, isn't he?' Tadashi asked nervously.

'Listen, you can't start stressing about Fred as well. I feel like you'll literally spontaneously combust.'

Tadashi laughed. 'Alright. True. Do you wanna drive?'

Rena shook her head. She didn't know why he still bothered asking. She hated driving. 'Nah. But I call shot gun because I am NOT listening to Wasabi's music again. Ever.'

'What's wrong with it?'

'Buddy. Come on. You listen to nothing but Phil Collins.'

'Yeah, what's up with Phil?'

'Literally everything.'

'Oh my god no way.'

They'd just pulled up outside the pancake place and Rena caught a glimpse of someone with a familiar mess of shaggy blonde hair in the window. She was half tempted to turn around and drive home, but she wasn't that cruel.

It's not like Caine was a bad person. He was just a little bit annoying with his constant questions and intrusive stare. (And those eyes! Seriously, why did they bother her so much?) But hey, he listened to her. And he made her feel interesting. So that was something at least.

Wasabi held the door open and she had barely stepped two feet into the place when he was in her face. 'Hey Rena! Fancy seeing you here!'

'Hey Caine. I didn't realise that you worked here.'

He shrugged. 'It's only part-time. Besides, I'm never in on Fridays. Might as well do something with my free time.'

'Well yeah, fair enough I guess.'

'So how are you doing?'

'Pretty good I guess, you?'

'Same as always. Anyways, I'd best get back to work. Give me a shout when you're ready to order and I'll come over.'

'Okay, thanks.'

He smiled and zig-zagged between the tables to a family of four sitting over in the corner. Wasabi came up behind Rena and eyed the little kids sat at the table. They were little, the oldest being about four and the younger one being a baby barely old enough to walk. 'Can we sit away from those kids?' He asked.

As if on cue, the older one opened his mouth and began an epic tantrum. Caine stepped back from the screaming child as his parents tried to calm him down and Rena didn't blame him. 'Oh yeah. Absolutely.'

They weaved between the tables until they found a vacated booth at the back of the restaurant, tucked neatly out of the way in a little corner. Rena slid in, sandwiched in-between Honey Lemon and Gogo. The boys sat opposite them, Fred and Wasabi already bickering about something.

'Wasabi, of course it's science!'

'No it's not!'

'Uh-huh! Why would they call it science fiction if it wasn't science?'

'Are you aware of what the word FICTION means?' Wasabi buried his head in his hands, 'Fred, it's not possible.'

'What does he want?' Gogo laughed.

'A shrink ray!' Fred exclaimed excitedly.

'Freddie, Wasabi's right. That's not science.' Honey Lemon said gently.

'Oh yeah? Just like that invisible sandwich wasn't "science" either?'

'Yes! Exactly like that!'

'I don't know what you guys mean.' Rena said, smirking. 'Of course a shrink ray is possible. In fact, I dare say that it would be easy for Wasabi to create.'

Fred grinned at her and Wasabi looked like he was about to cry. 'WHY would you say that?'

'Okay let's move on. Before Wasabi has a mental breakdown.' Gogo said, but she was clearly trying very hard not to laugh. 'Where's the waiter?'

'There's one over there!' Honey Lemon exclaimed, waving the waiter over.

'Oh no, not him!' Rena hissed. She really didn't want another reason for Gogo to think that she was head over heels for the guy.

Too late. He'd practically ran over as soon as he saw Honey Lemon trying to get his attention. 'Hey SFIT gang! How are we all doing today? Having a great time?!'

We've literally been here five minutes. Rena thought to herself, but she opted against being rude to him. 'Hi Caine.' Rena said, subtlety shooting Honey Lemon daggers. 'Any chance of some menus?'

He produced a stack of laminated menus from behind his back and dumped them on the table. The plastic slid across the table and Rena grabbed one. 'Do you guys need a minute or are you ready to order now? I can take drinks orders now?'

'Drinks will do.' Rena said, scanning the small section of the menu. 'Uhh, I'll just have a diet coke.'

'Same.' Gogo said, nodding.

'I'll have a green tea.' Said Honey Lemon. Caine scribbled the order down and looked expectantly at the boys.

'I'll take the biggest chocolate milkshake in the building! With extra whipped cream and sprinkles and-'

'Just a water for me thanks.' Wasabi added, butting in over Fred.

Caine smiled and noted it down. 'Anything else?' He asked, looking at Tadashi.

'Just a lemonade.' He said.

'Alright, cool. I'll get those now for you.'

He left and Rena sighed, sliding down in her seat. 'Why's he even working here? Do SFIT not give him enough?'

'Clearly not.' Wasabi said, eyeing his retreating back. 'Does he seem a little weird to anyone else?'

'Oh yeah. Totally.' Gogo replied, 'I feel like he's really unqualified. Plus he seems like a little bit of a creep.'

'I know what you mean.' Honey Lemon added, nodding thoughtfully. 'He does seem a little... off.'

'Hey he's not that bad!' Rena protested, surprising even herself. Sure, he was annoying but he was still nice enough. The guy was just a little enthusiastic is all! 'I'm not saying that I'm his best friend or anything, but he seems pretty cool to me.'

'You sure you're not best friends?' Gogo teased, 'he's ALWAYS talking to you.'

'I reckon he wants something from you.' Fred said mysteriously.

'It's not a bad shout.'

'Hang on, backtrack a second! First of all, what do I have that Caine could possibly want? Also, is it really that hard to believe that he might just like talking to me, you know, as a friend?'

'No offence, but yeah.' Gogo shrugged.

'Gogo doesn't mean it like that!' Honey Lemon exclaimed quickly as she caught a look at Rena's face. 'You're just a little... hostile is all. It took ages to get you to actually become friends with us instead of just staying shut off and unfriendly.'

'Harsh! I'm not that bad!'

'Don't lie, yes you were. Especially last year.'

Rena sat back in her seat and blew a strand of hair out her face. She bit back a retort and instead remained silent. She hated them because they had a point. 'Yeah yeah, whatever.'

'Moving on.' Honey Lemon said somewhat nervously, 'is anyone else going back to campus tonight? I'm still working on that formula for chemical metal embrittlement, I think I'm almost there but putting some extra work in tonight would really help.'

'I wasn't going to, but if everyone else is I might as well.' Gogo responded, shrugging.

Wasabi stopped studying the menu for a second and said 'sorry, I can't. I'm babysitting tonight for my neighbour.'

'Rena?' Honey Lemon asked.

'Well if Tadashi is going then I might as well.' She looked at her brother for an answer but he wasn't paying any attention to her, he was too busy typing something into his phone. 'Oi!' He didn't respond so she resorted to kicking him under the table.

Tadashi yelped and his phone slid out of his hand and landed on the table. 'OW! Don't you think that was a little unnecessary?' He complained, rubbing his shin where she'd struck him. He chewed his lip anxiously and Rena made a mental note to interrogate him later, not wanting to ruin the mood.

'Stop whining, woman up.' Gogo said, 'you coming or not?'

'Coming where?'

'SFIT! Were you even listening?'

'Would you be offended if I said no?'

'Extremely.' Gogo replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Tadashi clicked his phone off and tucked it away in his jacket pocket. 'Uhh, yeah I probably will. Baymax needs all the work he can get at the minute.'

'Yay! I love writing down lists of chemicals!' Rena said sarcastically. Truthfully though, she didn't mind it. Not like it was difficult anyway.

'Hey if you want to whine about it then you can always do some coding?'

Rena shook her head. 'NOPE! Ugh, I can't think of anything worse.'

'What's wrong with coding?' Wasabi asked, interested.

'Hey, I'll do it if I have to! It's just boring.'

'What, and writing down ingredients for antiseptics is the epitome of excitement?' Gogo smirked.

'Don't question my logic!'

'I'll question your shitty logic all I want.' Gogo said, grinning.

An old woman walking past them gave a scandalised gasp, holding her hand over her heart like she'd been wounded. 'Young lady! You should no better, that is in no way acceptable! I will pray for your damaged soul in hopes that you will find refuge in the Lord.'

For a second, they all stared at one another, not daring to say a word. Then, as soon as she got out of earshot, they erupted into laughter. Rena collapsed against Honey Lemon, her chest heaving. She wiped a tear from her face and gasped 'stop! How will we find refuge in the Lord if we act like this?!'

'Gonna get your Bible out, Gogo?' Tadashi laughed.

Gogo reached over the table and pulled his cap down over his eyes. 'Buddy, if anyone here is going to be a die-hard Christian then it's you!'

'She's not wrong.' Fred said.

'Woah there gang?! What's so funny!'

Rena jumped. She hadn't even realised that Caine had returned with their drinks. 'Oh... just the fact that Gogo is becoming a devout Christian.'

Caine blinked, clearly unsure as to whether or not the middle Hamada was joking. Gogo was quite possibly the least religious person that walked the planet. 'Riiiiight... I've got your drinks!' He started handing out the drinks without further commenting on the matter. A smart move, in Rena's opinion.

Gogo went to grab a diet coke on the tray but Caine was faster. 'Not so fast! That one belongs to Rena!'

He handed her the drink, which she accepted with a mumbled thanks. Well. That was... weird?

'Uhh, does it actually matter?' Gogo asked incredulously.

Caine smiled at her. 'Good customer service is of utmost importance, duh!'

Rena blinked. 'What?'

'The straw!' He said beaming.

She glanced down at her drink. The straw was orange and she smiled, remembering the conversation in which she'd told him her favourite colour. 'Oh! I see it now. Thanks.'

'No problem!' He winked, 'are we ready to order?'

As they all gave Caine their orders, Rena twirled the straw in her fingers. It was sweet, she was actually rather touched that he remembered this little detail about her. He didn't even question why such an ugly colour was her favourite, which was new. People always asked whenever she mentioned it, which the teen found really weird. Why did anyone actually care? Caine simply nodded and moved on. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't a big deal, it was just a stupid straw. But she couldn't help but smile. Maybe Caine was her friend after all.

'Alright, thanks guys! The wait shouldn't be too long.'

He turned and strode back to the kitchen.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Gogo looked directly at Rena and cackled. 'OooOoOoOooO! Special straw just for Rena!'

'No stop!' Rena said, hiding her face in her hands to conceal her flushed cheeks. There was no way in hell that she liked Caine. Nope. Not at all. In fact, she was certain that there was not a single atom in her entire being that was attracted to the guy. Besides, she was pretty sure that she'd literally never had a crush on any guy ever. Nah, she didn't have the time for boys in her life. Also, living with two brothers she definitely didn't need another boy in her life. Of course she loved her brothers, she just felt like tearing her own hair out sometimes.

In fact, the only person that she had ever had a crush on was... no. She had told herself never to think about it. It was too painful, and she had already shed too many tears. In fact, if Caine had bothered to ask, he would know why her favourite colour was orange. And why he should stop hitting on her.

She felt like breaking down and crying. Why was this all so confusing? It was just a straw! One second she thought it was cool that she didn't need to explain herself to him and now she was demanding that she does? Why was she such a mess?

'Rena.' Tadashi said.

She lifted her head and took a huge gulp of coke before answering. 'What?'

'I know I shouldn't get involved because it's your personal life but this guy is quite a bit older-'

'I'M GOING TO THE BATHROOM!' She half yelled. Gogo slid out of the booth and Rena practically ran to the bathroom. She sank down on the toilet seat and leant her forehead against the door, closing her eyes as she did so.

There was no way she was going to have that conversation with Tadashi. Ever. What must he think of her? She felt as though she'd wormed her way into a hole now. Brilliant. Now everyone was going to think that she was completely head over heels for Caine when she was really anything but. Why did it even matter?! They were just friends! Why'd Caine have to be so annoying and insistent? And why were her friends so convinced that she liked him?

She wanted to scream the truth in their faces. After all, there was a very good reason that Rena Hamada was not in love with Caine. And it wasn't just the fact that he was a legal adult and she was only 17.

No, the problem was that the only person she had ever liked was gone from her life. Snatched away just as Rena had plucked up the courage to kiss them. Ever since, she'd distanced herself away from romantic attraction and was extremely determined not to fall in love again. It was too painful, and why have heartache when you can just shove everything down and get on with your work?

Oh, and this person was a girl.

Rena Hamada was gay.

She wanted to tell her friends, but she was absolutely terrified. Not because they would be homophobic or anything, but because she'd never admitted it to anyone. Now that she thought about it, she had never properly admitted it to herself. She was scared!

Rena opened her eyes and sat back in the bathroom stall, thinking about how her friends would be missing her but also not really caring. She stayed like that until her legs went numb and she had no other option but to stagger out of the stall and splash her face with cold water.

'Okay.' She whispered to her reflection, watching a drop of cold water run down her cheek like a single tear. 'Stop. You're okay, it's just a stupid joke. Caine doesn't like you, and you certainly don't like him. Just breathe, and go back out there.'

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, wondering why her head suddenly felt so foggy. She walked back across the restaurant in a half daze, only realising that the food had come when she sank into her chair next to Gogo and looked down to see a steaming plate of pancakes that made her stomach turn.

'You okay?' Tadashi asked, peering at her with an annoying look of concern on his face, 'you look pretty pale.'

No. I feel like shit, quite frankly. Oh, and I just came to the revolutionary discovery that I'm gay only after shoving it down for about six years and pretending everything was fine but now I'm pretty close to exploding or something.

Instead, she just smiled. 'No, I'm fine.'


	4. Chapter 4

Rena sat back on the sofa, her eyes squeezed shut and her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. They'd just got back from SFIT and she had immediately collapsed onto the sofa, her head pounding and her eyes itching for sleep. Tadashi was in the kitchen, pacing up and down and muttering feverishly to himself.

'TADASHI! Please! Just... stop!' She snapped, wincing when she moved her head to look at him. He ignored her and she reluctantly stood and stiffly moved to the kitchen, trying to ignore the aching of her head. She grabbed his hand and clicked her fingers in his face. 'Calm down and quit working yourself up into a state about nothing.'

'Nothing?! Our little brother is MISSING!'

'Missing my ass! Did you not read the text he sent? Or do the words somehow have a different meaning in your weirdo's brain?'

To reinforce her point, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and flashed the screen in his face. On the screen, a message from Hiro was displayed.

hi. staying over at Harvey's for a while so I'll be home late. don't wait up for me I'm fine I'll call you if there are any problems.

Tadashi sighed and she slid her phone back into her pocket. 'The hell is going on with you?'

'I'm sorry! I just worry about-'

'Yeah I've heard all that before, Tadashi. Just... cool it down alright? No one's dying, no one's hurt. Everyone's fine, yeah?'

'Yeah. I suppose. Only-'

'No. Shut up. Promise me that you'll stop doing this to yourself?'

'Well hang on a minute-'

'Promise me!'

'... fine.'

'Thank you! Now come play Mario Kart with me.' Rena sighed, throwing her hands in the air and walking away from him. She'd almost made it back to the sofa when her knees buckled and she fell forwards, black spots dancing across her vision.

'Woah!' Tadashi said, rushing towards her. 'What happened there? You okay?'

He put a hand on her elbow but she waved him off. 'I'm fine! Just got a little dizzy all of a sudden.'

'You look really pale.' He said nervously.

Rena struggled to her feet and looked at him defiantly. 'I said I'm fine.'

Truth was, she felt like shit. But she decided firmly that she didn't want to give Tadashi another thing to add to his growing list of anxieties. She had no idea what was going on with him, he seemed so much more freaked out than usual. Maybe it was just the stress of college. Or Baymax. Or the fact that Hiro was getting into betting again, a dangerous sign that he was about to fall back into the dangerous world of botfighting. He'd barely escaped alive the first time the amount that he won, Rena didn't think he'd be so lucky again. Her head hurt even more just thinking about it. Rena staggered forwards and collapsed into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. She leaned forwards and rested her head against the cool surface, wrapping her arms around herself. Tadashi sat opposite her and she couldn't see his face but she just knew that he was looking at her anxiously, chewing his lip as he always did when he was unsure.

'Tadashi.' She mumbled, 'stop looking at me. I'm fine.'

'No, you're not. You basically just collapsed. What's up?'

Rena sat up and fixed him with a cold stare. 'Nothing! I'm just tired is all.'

'Yeah but you've been acting weird-'

'Oh, you're one to talk!' She snapped, 'you're the one that's been pacing up and down the kitchen for the past hour. Oh, and "should I call him? I will just in case?" Dashi, I know that you're usually very worried about us, but this is a whole new level. And so suddenly, why?'

He paused. 'I... I didn't think that you'd noticed.'

She scoffed. 'Of course, I noticed. I'm not as dumb as you think.'

'I don't think you're dumb.'

'Mhmm.' She sat back and crossed her arms, wincing as the slight movement sent a shock wave of pain that reverberated inside her skull. She yelped and pressed a hand to her head. Tadashi was instantly up and out of his seat. Rena didn't bother to ask where he was going, she just focused on trying not to vomit all over the floor. Now that wouldn't be fun to clean up.

'Would you get me a-' she started but Tadashi was instantly back at her side. He handed her a glass of water and she took it gratefully. He pressed a couple of pills into her hand and she swallowed them without even asking what they were. 'Thank you.'

'Don't mention it.' He pulled a chair over and slid it next to her, wrapping his arms around her. Rena lent against her big brother's warm form. Damn. He'd never fail to be immensely comforting.

'Piss off.' She whispered, smiling.

Tadashi smiled back and lent down, removing his arms from around his little sister. He fumbled with his prosthetic for a second before removing it and setting it down on the ground carefully. 'Sorry, can't.'

'Great! Now tell me what's wrong with you.'

'Nothing! We don't need to be talking about this now-'

She pulled away from him. 'Nii-chan.'

Tadashi stiffened, a small smile slowly working its way across his face. 'Haven't heard that one in a while.'

She nodded. 'Remember when Hiro used to call you that every ten minutes?'

'Yeah. To think I used to find it annoying.' He shook his head, 'I miss when things were simple. Before...'

He trailed off into silence, but Rena knew what he meant. Before their little brother joined high school and became closed off and reckless. Before the bullying and the botfighting. Back when an ice cream cone would fix anything and life was simple. 'Me too.'

She heard a sniff and looked up, shocked to find that he was crying. 'Dashi?'

He shook his head and swiftly reattached his prosthetic. 'I'm going to bed.' He mumbled, getting out his chair and practically running out of the room.

Rena watched him go, her mouth hanging open. What had just happened? What was going on with him, and why was he being so weirdly secretive? For some reason he had forgotten that she knew him better than literally anyone else on the planet, even Hiro.

'Dashi!' She called after him, but he was either too far away to hear her or he was just ignoring her. She suspected it was the latter, their apartment wasn't that small. Rena sighed, debating over whether or not to follow him. If it were her, she'd probably want to be alone. Then again, Tadashi wasn't her. And whatever was going on with him was something that she wanted to know about. She hated seeing him like that, all weird and worrisome. She sighed and stood up, intending to follow him up to his room. But her body had other ideas. As soon as she stood, the room spun so quickly that she felt sick. She tried to step forwards but her knees buckled again and she sank to the floor, trembling.

'What the hell?' She murmured to herself, squeezing her eyes shut and taking in deep breaths in order to combat the nausea.

Well, it seemed that she had no other option but to sit on the floor until whatever this was passed. What a good sister she was, leaving her brother to cry alone in his room. Rena wrapped her arms around herself and sighed deeply.

It was a good thing that no one else was around to see her crawl around the living room floor because she knew for a fact that she'd never live it down. Eventually though, she managed to force herself up the stairs and into her tiny bedroom. She collapsed onto the bed, her eyes itching with exhaustion and her entire body aching numbly. She had no idea what was wrong, maybe she'd managed to contract a weird form of the flu? The idea scared her slightly, she pretty much never got ill. The last time she had been sick was when Fred made enchiladas a couple of years back and somehow managed to give their entire friend group food poisoning. She wanted to call for Tadashi, he would probably know what was wrong. But her eyes were itching with exhaustion and her muscles begged for rest. She decided to just sleep it off, knowing that it was probably not the best idea but also not caring. She turned over and almost instantly fell asleep.

Rena woke in a cold sweat. She sat up slowly, her head spinning and her stomach doing somersaults. Her heart was hammering in her rib cage and her breathing was rapid. These would have been considered normal if she had just had a nightmare, but she couldn't even remember dreaming anything at all. She threw the blankets off herself and sat up slowly, trying not to vomit on the bedroom floor. Water. She needed water.

Five minutes later (after a lot of silent cursing and staggering) she had somehow managed to stumble to the kitchen. She flicked the light on and caught a reflection of herself in the oven door. Well, it was safe to say that she wasn't going to win any beauty pageants anytime soon. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, praying that she would stop feeling like shit by the morning. She grabbed a glass and filled it with water. She drank slowly, the glass clinking against her teeth as her hand was trembling like a leaf. She set the glass down on the side before she dropped it and glanced at the clock on the oven door. Only 2:15am. It was a Friday - she would normally still be awake by this time. She'd be sitting on her bed listening to music and-

Creeeeak. Bang. Rustle.

Rena tensed, praying to whoever was out there that this wasn't a robber. Or a murderer. Or a-

Shit. She could hear footsteps. The only thing her delirious mind could think to do was grab a wooden spoon that Cass had left lying on the side. Yeah, like that would do a lot of good when she was up against a criminal. Slowly, she edged towards the stairs and tried not to think about how she was extremely close to passing out. Rena raised her wooden spoon in what she hoped was a threatening manner but in reality probably made her look like a housewife. She held her breath as footsteps approached and edged towards the door. The door swung open and she swung wildly in the air, a sharp yelp of pain telling her that the spoon had met its target. The figure cursed and backed away from her. Rena squinted at the criminal and gasped with recognition.

'Hiro!' Her voice sounded slurred, which was something that she wasn't expecting.

'Yeah it's me! Enough with the utensil attacking, alright?' He shook his head, rubbing his arm where she'd hit him.

'You scared me! I thought you were a robber or something!'

'Keep your voice down! You really want to wake them up?' He hissed angrily. He looked at her and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. 'You were in the kitchen and the weapon you choose to go up against a potential armed robber is a... wooden spoon? What was wrong with the massive knives Aunt Cass has in the draws?'

Rena turned the spoon over in her hands. Huh. A knife! Why hadn't she thought of that? 'I don't know... I panicked? Besides, be grateful that I didn't stab you.'

'You okay?' He asked, concerned.

'Are you?'

He shifted uncomfortably. 'Yeah. I'm fine, why wouldn't I be? I was just working on my project with Harvey.'

'So why are you home so late?'

He shrugged. 'It took longer than we thought it would is all.'

Rena's mind felt cloudy. She knew that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. 'Okay...'

Hiro nodded. 'Uh, yeah. So... I'm going to bed now.'

'Wait!' She said, 'you're hurt.' She had only just realised, but his lip was split and there was a nasty looking cut on his forehead. 'What happened?'

Hiro cringed. 'It's nothing. I uh.. I fell.'

'You fell.' She said dubiously. 'I don't- actually you know what? Never mind.'

'You're not mad?' He said hopefully.

'Mad?' Rena squinted at him, confused. 'What would I be mad about?'

'Oh! Wait, what? I mean, nothing! Nothing. Everything is great.'

'Uhhh, okay?' Rena said. She was about to go back to bed when she remembered. 'Clean! Yes, let's get you cleaned up.'

Hiro followed her upstairs to the bathroom, confused about her lack of anger. He thought he'd been stupid and made what was really going on obvious. Even an idiot would be able to latch on. The fact that his super brainy sister seemed unable to catch on unnerved him. He was relieved obviously. The last thing he wanted was to get in trouble. But... this was weird. He didn't even laugh when she fell up the stairs twice. Something was wrong. But he wasn't going to mention it. She was probably just tired. Besides, if he pointed it out or told Tadashi then he would be in heaps of trouble.

Rena stumbled into the bathroom and Hiro turned the lights on. She knelt down and began rooting in the cupboards, clumsily knocking over bottles and boxes of pills. She cursed under her breath as a box of paracetamol burst open and sent little white pills cascading all over the bathroom floor. She could feel Hiro's gaze on her back as she scooped them up and shoved them back in the box, spilling half of them on the floor again. He sighed and bent down next to her.

'Let me do it.'

'No! It's fine.'

He ignored her and elbowed her aside, quickly stuffing the pills back into the box and throwing it back in the cupboard. 'Why were you looking for so long? The antiseptic is literally right there!' He grabbed the bottle and a couple of cotton pads and placed them on the side of the sink.

'Didn't see them. Here-' She stepped forwards but fell against the wall.

Hiro raised his eyebrows. 'Sit down. I'll do it.'

He turned to the mirror and dabbed the stuff on carefully, wincing. Rena watched him slightly guiltily. The kid was hurt and she couldn't even stand up to help him. She didn't realise that he was watching her in the mirror.

'It's fine. I've done this a hundred times already.'

'Yeah but that's just even sadder.'

He shrugged. 'If you say so. What's sad to me is the fact that you're still awake and not in bed when you can barely stand.'

'I'm fine, I'm just tired.'

'Rena.' He said gently, very uncharacteristically of him.

'Hiro.' She snapped, standing. 'See? I'm fine!' But before she could even move her stomach clenched and she retched. Hiro seemed to understand what was happening a second before she did. He lunged out of the way as she collapsed onto her knees, shaking. Hiro grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to the toilet just as the first wave of vomit appeared. She coughed and shuddered as the pancakes she had previously forced down reappeared. Hiro placed a tentative hand on her back and she felt guilty almost instantly. There he was, filling the role of the older sibling after just coming home in the dead of night hurt and exhausted. She had promised herself that she would do better, that she would be stronger for her brother. For both of her brothers.

After a couple of minutes, she considered it safe enough to sit up. She edged away from the toilet as though it was poisonous and lent against the bath, the cool surface was nice on her sweating back. She pulled her knees to her chest and lowered her head, wondering what the hell was going on with her. Flu? No, there was no fever. Food poisoning? It couldn't be ruled out just yet, but if it were then wouldn't Tadashi be ill as well? Plus, food poisoning didn't explain the bleariness and confusion she was experiencing. She remained in that position for a few more minutes, and just when she decided that he had left her and gone to bed he was sitting on the floor next to her and sliding an arm around her shoulders. Rena gently tipped her head back and rested it against her brother's shoulder. She was reminded painfully of when they'd last been this close - during that weird period of time in which Tadashi wasn't around and they were both utterly lost without him.

'Yeah you're totally fine though.' Hiro said sarcastically, breaking the tension in the small room. 'Absolutely and completely fine.'

Rena smiled weakly. 'Whoops.'

'You're unbelievable sometimes.'

'Well, I guess that's something we have in common then.'

He paused, chewing his lip. An unfortunate trait that he had inherited from their older brother. 'We should get to bed.'

The very idea of moving made Rena want to cry. She'd much rather just curl up where she was on the floor rather than heave her aching muscles to her bedroom. But she couldn't worry Hiro. Besides, it wasn't his job to look after her. 'Look at you, being all responsible. Proud of you.'

'Gee, thanks!'

He stood and helped her to her feet. She still felt extremely sick and dizzy but decided to try as hard as possible to not let that show. 'You're welcome! Seriously though, I am proud of you. You're in SFIT! That's awesome! And you

stopped that... betting or whatever.' She yawned massively, trying to remain casual and probably failing.

'You mean the botfighting?'

'Hell yeah! That!' Rena said, slurring so badly that she sounded drunk. 'You're not doing that anymore! That's so amazing! Hey, are you crying?'

'What?!' Hiro snapped, wiping a tear from his face. 'No!' He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor to avoid her gaze. Rena looked at him suspiciously. She looked very guilty about something and she knew she was missing something. But as soon as the thought came, it disappeared. It was like a moment of clarity in her foggy head that had disappeared as soon as it had arrived.

'Okay!' She said, holding up her hands in mock surrender.

Hiro shook his head and she followed him out into the hallway. 'Night.' He said gruffly, sounding suspiciously teary for someone that wasn't crying. Rena didn't have the energy to respond to him verbally, so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently before he wrenched it out of her grip and practically ran up the stairs to his room. Rena sighed and used the wall to get to her own bedroom, fearing that if she collapsed now she wouldn't be able to get back up. She opened her door and sank onto the carpeted floor instantly. She knew she should get up and get into bed but the carpet was so soft... and she was so exhausted. Then, before she knew it, her eyes were sliding shut and she fell unconscious.

Rena was awoken by someone shaking her shoulder.

'Rena! For gods sake WAKE UP!'

'Wha?' she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Why was she on the floor? She didn't remember falling asleep on the floor. In fact, she couldn't remember anything about last night. She vaguely remembered a... a wooden spoon?

'We need your help.' Tadashi said. She barely registered what he was saying, she felt as though she hadn't slept at all.

'Help? Where?'

'What do you mean where? In the cafe! Wake up.' He snapped. She then realised that he was wearing a signature lucky cat apron and his name badge pinned to his polo. 'There's an absolute rush of customers and Aunt Cass is swept off her feet. Get dressed and come down as soon as possible. Also, I'd recommend not sleeping on the floor, but you do you.' And then he was gone, she could hear him thundering back downstairs.

Jeez, things must be stressful for Tadashi to act so chill about finding her asleep on the floor. She had a funny feeling that if this were any other occasion he'd go mental and pelt her with questions. But whatever, she preferred for him not to ask. Besides, if he had asked then she wouldn't be able to give him a straight answer anyway. She stood up, her limbs feeling like molten lead. Her movements were jerky and sluggish, almost as though she wasn't in control of her own body.

'No.' She muttered to herself, 'I'm in control. Of everything. I'm fine.'

She got changed slowly, it took her ages to be able to find her uniform. Turns out it was just neatly folded in her drawers but for some reason she didn't register that it was her uniform for about five minutes. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, her face truly mirroring how she felt. She sighed and grabbed a face wipe, wiping her face before quickly attempting a tiny bit of makeup in order to make herself look at least a little presentable. But nope, her hands didn't want to seem to cooperate so she scrapped the idea altogether.

Ten minutes later, she was in the cafe and holding a steaming mug of black coffee with no idea where to go. Tadashi had seen her and had immediately thrust it into her hands without a word. She assumed it was for a customer but the temptation to just down it all was almost too strong. She swallowed and lumbered clumsily across the rammed cafe. Tadashi was right, it was absolutely rammed. She squeezed past an old woman and slid behind the counter next to Tadashi.

'T!' She called.

'What?' He replied, sounding very stressed.

'Where's this going?'

'I told you!'

'No you didn't!'

He sighed. 'Mabel, it's her regular order. Every Saturday morning, one black coffee and a two slices of plain toast.

Rena paused. Mabel. She did recognise the name but for whatever reason couldn't put a face to it. 'Riiiight... and Mabel is...?'

Tadashi stared at her. 'We don't have the time for messing around.' Rena just stared back at him and after a second he seemed to realise that she was being genuine. 'Seriously? She's come in every week since we were kids? She literally buys us birthday cards!' Rena shook her head and he sighed, 'the old woman over there on table ten. Hurry back please.'

Rena walked stiffly over to table ten with the coffee. She gave it to a grinning Mabel who pinched her cheeks and complimented her profusely. Rena could do nothing but smile back and thank her for her kind words. She walked back over to Tadashi feeling thoroughly confused. She had recognised the woman on sight but the fact that she had not been able to remember her had thrown her. A lot. What was going on? Why did everything feel so fuzzy?

'Rena!' Tadashi snapped when she came back to him.

'What now?!'

'You just walked past THREE tables that need clearing! Am I gonna have to retrain you or will you get your ideas straight?' He softened slightly when he saw the panicked look on her face. 'What's going on with you? You're normally great at this.'

Rena shrugged. 'Tired.' She said simply. She walked back over to the tables and cleared them of their mugs and plates. She ignored Tadashi trying to say something when she walked past, instead walking straight behind him and heading for the kitchen. She dumped the plates on the side and smiled at Hiro who grimaced back.

'I HATE dish-washing duty!' He grumbled. The sink was full up to his elbows with various pieces of cutlery.

'If you whine again I won't pay you!' Aunt Cass sang from the corner. She was cheerfully mixing a bowl of what appeared to be cookie dough, although Rena could tell that she was stressed from the way that she kept looking at the clock and the massive bag of potato chips that were already half finished.

'Is anyone else coming in?' Rena asked her Aunt.

Cass frowned. 'Umm, no honey. I don't normally have anyone in Saturday mornings, you know that. It's never this busy so Robbie and Iris don't come in until lunch. Another two and a half hours yet.' She added, gritting her teeth and mixing the dough with a lot more force than what was probably necessary.

'Right! Okay. Well, I'd best get back out there.' Rena said, turning to leave.

'Wait! Table two.' Cass said, handing her a plate of eggs that Rena didn't even notice was there. She nodded meekly and left, even more confused than she was before. Why did people keep thinking that she should know all this information? Like, yeah sure she lived at the cafe and helped out more days than she didn't but... did she really know all this? She felt a stab of insecurity. Was she always this inadequate?

'Eggs.' She said, too distracted to put on her gleaming smile reserved just for customers. She slid the plate neatly in front of the man sat there and he smiled at her. Rena felt a shiver go down her spine.

'Thanks darling.' The man said, sounding anything but warm. He was wearing a fedora and a huge winter coat. Seriously? Sure, it was November, but the guy was inside, and it was sweltering inside the cafe! Rena pulled on the neck of her polo shirt subconsciously. She was sweating, how was this guy able to sit there in his huge winter coat. He had a sleek, black beard and... was that a glass eye?

'Y...you're welcome.' Rena stammered nervously, unsure as to why she was so scared of him. She swore she recognised him, but when he spoke she was certain of it. His voice... where had she heard it before? Clearly she wasn't one for remembering today. She spun on her heel and made a beeline for the ladies room, ignoring Tadashi's protests from across the cafe floor.

She locked the door behind her and sat down on the toilet seat, taking her hair out of its messy ponytail just so she could run her hands through it. She twisted her curls between her fingers and pushed down the urge to scream in frustration. First, she had awoken on the bedroom floor with no memory of even falling asleep. Then, she had forgotten all about the kindly regular and the staff rota which she was pretty sure she'd accidentally memorised. Then, that weirdo guy that for some reason made her palms sweat. There had to be a reason for this, surely? What the hell was going on, why did she feel like her head had been stuffed with cotton wool?

She shook her head and stood up, looking at her reflection as though it would offer her any guidance. But no, unfortunately all she received when she stood was a wave of dizziness so strong that it made her stomach turn. She retched, diving onto the floor just in time. When she had finished vomiting, she wiped her mouth on a square of toilet paper and felt thankful that she didn't get any on the floor. After all, it would be her cleaning it up. She straightened out, wobbling slightly. She tied her hair up again and quickly splashed her face with cold water, hoping that she didn't look too awful. She was tempted to dip and head back upstairs to bed but shut that idea down almost instantly. She was fine! It was probably just a weird side-effect of exhaustion... or something. She couldn't let the side down now, especially when the cafe was so busy. And she didn't want her family to worry about her or think she was weak. Nope, that was the last thing she wanted. She swore to herself a long time ago that she would never be a burden to them. Ever.

'Where the hell did you go?'

'The bathroom! Calm down!'

'Rena I swear to-' Tadashi trailed off and stared at her, squinting at her face.

'It's rude to stare, what now?'

'Are you high?'

'What? No! The hell are you talking about?'

'Your eyes!'

Rena blinked. Another wave of dizziness hit and she swayed slightly, grabbing onto the counter so that she wouldn't fall. 'What about them?'

Tadashi turned around, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. 'Umm, what are you talking about?'

'You just said your eyes!'

'Uh, no I didn't? I didn't say anything!'

'Yes you did! You-' Rena stopped mid-sentence. The cafe was empty. That wasn't right, it had been full of people ten seconds earlier. 'What the f-'

'Rena?' Tadashi looked genuinely concerned. He dropped the cloth that he was using to wipe down the counter and walked over to her. Rena blinked. Wasn't he just standing right in front of her? 'Are you joking or?'

'I-' She faltered, trembling. 'You-'

He took her by the shoulders. 'I said that over an hour ago. Your eyes were dilated. They still are, actually. You told me to shut up and you haven't said a word since.'

Rena choked back a sob. 'I did?'

'Yeah. You didn't even say anything when I yelled at you for smashing that plate. You just stood there and stared at me.'

Rena shook her head. Nope, she was dreaming. Was she? She pinched her arm a little harder than she had intended to and winced. Nope, this was real. 'Haha, very funny Tadashi.'

'No, I'm being serious!'

'Yeah. Sure you are.' She turned away from him and walked a little unsteadily across the empty cafe to the stairs. She was thrown by the disappearance of the customers but she pretended not to be. She could figure it out when she got to her room.

She was fine.

Everything was fine.

She started going up the stairs but it was as though all of her limbs didn't belong to her. She fell more than once, scraping her hands on the wood. She lent against the wall, knocking off a picture frame and sending shards of glass all over the stairs as it shattered. Was that Tadashi calling her? Nope, ignore him. Ignore the glass in your hands and ignore the ringing. She ran her tongue over her teeth and coughed. Water. Water would be good.

Then she was at the sink without any memory of being there. The glass shook in her hand, sending water slopping over the edges. Screaming. Was that her or someone else? It didn't matter. Screaming. Water. Glass in her hands. Glass on the floor. Water on her new shoes. Oh damn, Mom and Dad were gonna be angry. No wait, these shoes weren't new. Were they? Mom and Dad. Dead. Cap. Clouds. Car. Crash. Screaming. Blood. Screaming. Rena clamped her hands over her ears, the screams of her dying Mother reverberating in her brain. Hiro's crying. No, Hiro wasn't crying. And he wasn't three anymore.

'Dashi.' She slurred, stepping over the glass and nearly falling. Her hands slammed into the table and her eyes stung with tears. Bile rose in her throat and she wanted to go to sleep. Sleep would be nice.

'Rena.' her Dad said, stepping towards her. Was that her Dad? No, it was her brother. Which one?

'Please.' She said, then louder 'help me.'

She didn't know who she was pleading to, but she was slipping. Her brother was walking towards her but she was getting further and further away. She whimpered pathetically, extending her arms out towards him. He was saying something but his mouth wasn't making any words. She couldn't reach him. Why couldn't she reach him? Who was screaming? Why did her hands hurt? Why did her feet feel wet? That man. The man from the cafe. He was laughing at her. Was he? He was jeering and laughing. No, she was imagining it. Sleep. Sleep would be nice.

Then she was falling.

Falling.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Into darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

'Rena.'

She opened her eyes slowly. She should have hurt, she should still be feeling fuzzy and sluggish. But... Rena felt fine. In fact, she had felt better than she had in a long time. She lifted her head and found she was still lying on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. Without thinking about it, she moved her hand backwards and heard a horrible crunch of glass. She snatched her hand away automatically, expecting to have to dig shards of glass out her palms. But there was nothing. No scratches or signs that she had just dug her hand into a pile of broken glass. In fact, her hand seemed to be... glowing?

'Rena.'

That voice again. Rena stood slowly and looked around for the source of the voice, but there was no one there. She yelped as she turned and caught a glimpse of Tadashi kneeling on the floor next to where she had just been lying. Why hadn't she noticed him there when she first woke?

'Dashi I'm fine. You can get up now.'

But he didn't move. At all. Rena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and bent down in front of him. His face was frozen, his eyes wide and mouth open like he was trying to say something. His hand was stretched out as though he was reaching for something.

'Haha, very funny. But cut it out.' She snapped. He didn't move and she reached out to shake his shoulders. Instead of grabbing onto him, her hand passed straight through him. She stifled a scream and jumped backwards, hitting her funny bone on the kitchen table. Again, it should have sent a sharp jolt of pain up her arm but she didn't feel anything.

'Wha-?' She breathed, her hands shaking as she examined them. Okay. So she'd just turned into some kind of weird ghost. Fine, whatever. Yep. This was normal.

'It's just a dream.' She muttered to herself, shaking her head. But something told her that it wasn't a dream, this was really happening. Besides, she had five fingers. Dream people didn't have five fingers.

'Rena.'

The voice was back, and even more insistent than before. Rena whipped her head from side to side to try to locate the voice. She couldn't see anyone else apart from her frozen brother, and the more she looked the more she that she was convinced that she'd imagined it.

Then something glittered in the corner of her eye. She stepped over Tadashi and stared at the weird source of the glinting. Her Mother's photo hung on the wall. She seemed... alive? Rena brushed her fingers against the glossy surface, watching as her Mom seemed to smile at her even more warmly than she already was.

'Mom?' She whispered, her voice cracking.

'You're so close.'

Rena yelped and fell back against the wall. There was her Mom. Stood right behind her, as alive and well as the day she died.

'You've done so well.' She said, grinning hugely at her daughter.

'What? I.. I don't understand.'

'You will. Come with me.'

Her Mother extended her hand towards her and before Rena had even thought about it, she took it. Suddenly, the room was enveloped in an intense golden glow. She tried to cry out but found her voice wasn't working. Then, the floor fell out from underneath her and she was falling into darkness.

A stressed 17-year-old Tadashi was drumming his fingers on the dashboard. He was staring straight ahead and his mouth was set in a thin, straight line. His eyebrows were furrowed and Rena could practically hear the cogs working away in his brain. He was chewing his lip anxiously. An old habit and a sign to Rena that he was definitely stressing about something. And she was pretty sure she knew what. She straightened out and tapped him on the shoulder.

'You're doing it again.'

'Oh.' He stopped and brushed a finger to his lip, a smear of blood coming away with it. 'Whoops.'

'How long ago did school finish?'

He sighed and ruffled his hair. Another nervous habit but this time it was one that all three Hamadas shared. 'Just under half an hour ago.' He replied with a quick glance at his watch.

'I'm sure he'll be out any minute.' Her tone betrayed her: she sounded just as unsure as she felt. Truthfully, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Hiro was supposed to come meet them straight after school as always. But he hadn't appeared. They were pretty much the only ones left in the parking lot and the two siblings were beginning to worry about their little brother. The school year had only started a month or so back but Hiro had never been more closed off. They knew something was going on but he remained frustratingly shut off. The first day he had come home with bruises littering his arms that he claimed were from him tripping in the hallway. Rena had her doubts. She'd been picked on before for skipping a grade, as had Tadashi. But it was never anything too bad, just odd name calling and jibes at their nerdiness. That she could handle. However, neither of them had skipped three grades as Hiro had. He was the school's first 11-year-old freshman, and you could tell. The kid was tiny and anxious looking and Rena and Tadashi weren't stupid. They knew this made him a very obvious target but Hiro had never told them about any trouble he had encountered.

'I promised them I'd protect him.' Tadashi said in a small voice. 'And yet I let him go here.'

'It was his decision.' Rena said.

'I know. But we could have talked him out of it.'

'You saw how depressed he was in the 'boring' classes. You wouldn't have been able to talk him out of it.'

'Yeah. I just worry.'

She sighed. 'Wanna go look for him?'

Tadashi nodded.

They'd been walking for ten minutes until they noticed that something was wrong. Rena rounded a corner and began walking towards the bike sheds until she heard something that made her blood run cold. She grabbed Tadashi's sleeve and pulled him behind one of the trashcans. They crouched down awkwardly as they listened to what was happening.

'You said I'd get an A+! I got an A-!' Rena recognised the voice from the hallways. She was pretty sure he was a freshman. She winced as she heard the sound of someone being hit. Hard.

'HA! What are you even doing here, you little nerd? I mean what's the point if you can't even get us the best grades that you promised?' Another voice. It was a nasty voice, jeering and laughing cruelly at their intended victim. Again, the sounds of kicking and punching filled the air.

'To...to be fair... I... I don't even... I don't take Spanish!'

Rena tightened her grip around Tadashi's wrist as she suppressed the urge to be sick. She knew that voice, and from the look on Tadashi's face he had also come to the same conclusion.

'You're useless, you know that?'

Thump.

'No one likes you!'

Punch.

'Why would they?'

'LEAVE HIM ALONE!'

Rena dove out from where they were hiding and ran towards the bully. The grin slid from his face as she slammed him into the wall behind her. Her face was inches away from the bully as Tadashi dove in front of Hiro, protecting him from the bullies that were hurting his baby brother.

'What do you think you're doing?' She hissed dangerously, pressing her arm into his throat. The blonde haired boy gulped and his fingers tried to pull Rena away from him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Tadashi had scared the rest of them away.

'Never do that again. To anyone. You hear me?' She must have looked scary because he nodded feverishly, his eyes bulging out of his head. She turned away from him and he fell to the floor and scrambled away after his friends.

She stepped towards Hiro and Tadashi. Tadashi was kneeling over their little brother and Rena could tell he was blinking back tears. Hiro lay on the floor, stirring only ever so slightly. She was almost there when she noticed that her hand was smoky. She raised it to look at it but her vision was fading and swirling. Everything became cloudy as she yelled out, wondering what was happening to her. Tadashi and Hiro didn't hear her, and the further she ran the further away they became. Colours and objects were spinning around her and she tried to clamp her eyes shut but she couldn't move. She was frozen in time, her ears popping and head spinning-

Then she was 7 again. She was in the car, playing I spy with Tadashi. She was sat behind the passengers seat, craning her neck out the window to locate what Tadashi had spotted. He was wedged in next to her, next to Hiro. The toddler often cried when Tadashi sat anywhere else. Rena didn't mind. She loved her little brother but she also loved looking out the window and admiring the views as they zoomed past them.

'A car!' She exclaimed, pointing at a red car driving alongside them.

'Nope!' Tadashi said gleefully.

'Ceiling?' Their Mother asked, pointing a ringed finger at the car ceiling.

'Guess again!'

'Tree!'

'Daaaad! I said C! Not T!'

'Cap!' Hiro shrieked happily from his car seat. His pudgy fists reached forward and tried to pull the cap from Tadashi's head.

'Yes! Hiro wins!' Tadashi said, pulling his hat off and giving it to his little brother. Hiro squealed with delight and stuffed the edge in his mouth.

'Ewwwww!' Rena said, sticking her tongue out at her annoying brothers. Tadashi rolled his eyes and elbowed her playfully.

'He's only three!' He protested sulkily.

Rena ignored him. She turned her head and rested her chin on her hand as she stared out the window. She watched the clouds drift by lazily and smiled. One day, she was going to invent something that she could use to travel up into the sky. She might take Tadashi with her, if he was nice. They would take Hiro with them and they could live up in the clouds and have an endless supply of marshmallows. Away from parents and their silly rules and most certainly away from broccoli soup. Yuck. Yes, that sounded rather pleasant.

She was pulled away from her daydream by a small black glint in the corner of her eye. It was a car. Driving towards them. She furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. Was it supposed to be driving towards them? No, she was sure that it wasn't. She had just had a nice police officer come in at school and tell their class about how you always had to do up your seat-belt and not open the car doors when the car was moving. And yes, she had definitely mentioned that cars had to stay in their own lanes when driving. So why wasn't this car adhering to these rules? Did the driver forget what he had been told when he was at school? He must have done, because he was coming a lot closer.

'Mommy?' She asked, straightening out and glaring at the car coming towards her.

'Yes my darling?'

'Why is that car driving towards us?'

'What?'

Her Dad yelled very loudly. Rena clamped her hands over her ears as he cursed. The car swerved suddenly and Rena was slammed into Tadashi's side. He gave a muffled yell as her elbow dug into his ribs but Rena couldn't move it out of the way. The car tilted dangerously to the side but then the black car rammed into the side of them and it tipped completely. Suddenly, Rena was being thrown around in her seat as the car rolled down the grassy banking lining the highway. The window next to her shattered and the glass found a home in her skin; big shards of it were stuck in her arms and face. She squeezed her eyes shut and her heart felt like it was pounding in her head. Hiro was screaming and her parents were shouting but she couldn't understand what they were saying. Tadashi grabbed her hand and squeezed it so tight she felt like he was going to pull her fingers off. Then, as suddenly as it had all started, the car stopped. They were sideways in the mud and everything slowed down. The small girl opened her eyes and took in the scene. Tadashi had let go of her hand and taken Hiro out from his car seat. They were both laying still next to her, Tadashi's arm bent at a strange angle and Hiro was covered in blood. She let out a shriek as she shook her older brother's shoulder, tears streaming down her face.

'Wake up!' She gasped between breaths, 'Tadashi! Stop! It's not funny anymore, wake up!' But he never even stirred.

Her Mother was in front of her and she climbed over the seats to reach her, but something was wrong. Her eyes looked different and glassy and her head was covered in thick, sticky blood. Rena collapsed on top of her still form and tried to wake her up but she remained just as stubbornly asleep as Tadashi. She curled up next to her and sobbed. Her ankle throbbed and she was covered in cuts from the broken glass. She could hear sirens in the background but the scene dissolved before they reached her. Then, she felt a jerk in her stomach and she was wrenched forwards, spinning through the air.

She was stood in the river. Her shoes and socks lay discarded on the rocks behind her and she hoisted up her trousers as she waded deeper into the water. Grinning, she turned around to face a girl standing by the rivers edge.

'Come on! It's not that cold!'

The girl shook her head, dark orange curls cascading down her face. 'No way!'

'You're so boring! If I'd have known that you would be such a coward-'

'Okay! Fine!' The girl kicked her shoes off and waded in after her.

Rena stretched out her hand and the girl took it. Rena pulled her in and she stood next to her in the water. For a second, they stood in comfortable silence.

'Clara?'

'Yeah?'

Violet turned and Rena felt herself melt as her best friend looked at her in the eyes. They were a beautiful sea green and they sparkled with flecks of gold in the early evening sunlight. Rena was so close to her that she could count the freckles that were spread across her face. Clara squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

'R, what is it?'

I think I'm in love with you. 'When's the chemistry homework due?'

Clara laughed, and Rena felt her heart swell. God, her laughter was so beautiful. 'I'm not even going to respond to that because I know you've already done it.'

'Maybe.'

'Oh come off it! You know I know you better than anyone.'

'Okay yeah, you're right.'

Clara let go of her hand and stepped forwards until she was knee deep in the water. She smiled and tipped her head back, drinking in the sunlight. 'This is... brilliant. I'm gonna write about this.'

Rena smiled at her friend. 'Oh?' Clara was quite possibly the best poet in the history of the world. Ever. 'I can't wait to read it.'

'Hey... there's something I need to tell you.'

Clara's smile had slipped off her face and she suddenly looked quite anxious. Rena felt her blood run cold as she ran through a million possibilities in her head. 'What? Are you okay?'

She stepped towards her friend but slipped on a rock. She screeched horribly as she came crashing down towards the water, but Clara was fast. She caught her raven-haired friend by the wrists and hauled her up before Rena got a mouthful of water. Their noses were inches away from one another.

'Thanks.'

'Don't worry about it.'

She had that look on her face. Rena's heart felt like it was doing somersaults. 'So what did you want to tell me?'

'In a minute.' Clara murmured. Rena could barely hear her over the water and the sound of her heart thrashing around in her rib-cage. She wanted to say something but words failed her. It took all of her concentration not to just let her mouth hang open in admiration and awe. She'd been best friends with Clara since she'd sat next to her in English the first day in freshman year. She had written the most beautiful poem about summer and since then Rena had been pretty much smitten with her. It had been two years and those thoughts had never changed.

Then they were kissing.

Fireworks exploded inside of her. Clara tasted exactly like her poem. She tasted of sunshine and apple juice. She tasted of peaches and flowers and strawberries. Rena's fingers traced her freckles, Clara's fingers were tangled in her mess of hair. Rena was terrified that she would pull away and say she was straight, but the moment never came.

Then the ginger-haired girl really did pull away. Rena grinned stupidly at her best friend before she realised something was wrong. She was chewing her lip anxiously and didn't seem to want to meet the middle Hamada in the eye. A cold feeling of dread settled on her chest. 'What is it? Are you not.. into girls? Did I do something? Are-'

'No! God no, R. You haven't done a thing.'

'Then... what is it?'

Clara shrugged and turned away from her, sending water sloshing over Rena's legs. 'I.. We shouldn't have done that.'

'Why?' Rena grabbed her wrist and gently pulled Clara towards her. 'Why not? Come on, talk to me.'

'I meant to tell you, I really did. But we shouldn't. We can't. It was stupid, but I had to do that at least once.'

Rena felt her heartbeat picking up speed. 'I don't understand.'

Clara's eyes filled with tears. 'We're moving. W... we leave on Friday. I wanted to tell you! I did. I just.. I only found out a couple of days ago and I couldn't get my head around it.'

Rena's head spun. It was Wednesday. Her best friend was moving in two days. 'Where are you moving to?'

'France.'

'France? I- what?!'

'I know! I know. It's something to do with my Dad's work or whatever.'

Rena's eyes stung with tears. She'd finally kissed the girl she'd been chasing for two years and then it turns out she's moving? Why was the universe so against her? Why couldn't she just have one little thing? 'Well. We still have two days.'

Rena leaned in to kiss her and for a second Clara looked like she was going to return it. Then, the red headed girl pulled away. The river splashed as she stepped backwards away from Rena. 'Rena.. we can't. I'm moving! We can't do this. I can't do it, not long distance.'

Rena stepped towards her. 'Clara please-'

'No. Rena, stop. Don't make this harder than it already is. I'm going home, I need to pack.'

Rena could only watch as she scrambled over the rocks to get her stuff. She didn't even look back as she disappeared over the hill, leaving Rena alone on the river banking. The teen sank onto the rocks and buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

She lifted her head to find that she was back at home. Her and Tadashi were playing Mario Kart, and she was kicking his butt. Obviously. Tadashi had never beaten her at Mario Kart, it was the one thing that she could be relied upon to be better at.

'Haha suck it!' She gloated as she crossed the finish line, coming in first place again.

Tadashi threw his hands in the air, exasperated. 'Honestly! I don't even know why I bother anymore!'

'Your hopeless optimism.' Rena replied, smirking.

Tadashi rolled his eyes. 'Keep that up and I'll stop playing.'

'That's what you said last time. And the time before that. Oh, and the time before that.'

'Alright! Rematch then.'

'Lit. 150cc?'

'Obviously. Should I go grab Hiro?'

Rena shrugged. 'If you want. I don't reckon he'd want to come down but you need all the support you can get.'

'Yeah, like he's ever gonna cheer on the losing side.'

'To be fair, he probably would if it was you.'

'Okay, I'll be right back.'

Rena nodded, flicking aimlessly through the character selection. She hummed along to the theme tune and smiled to herself, feeling peaceful for the first time in a while. Her homework was done, it was a Saturday night and she had just finished all her exams (which she was almost sure that she had aced). The next day she was going to accompany Tadashi to the SFIT campus so he could check it out and she was really looking forward to seeing all the sweet tech they'd have on display.

Of course this would never last long.

Tadashi yelled something from upstairs and instantly she knew something was wrong. 'Dashi?' She yelled, but he ignored her. She heard a loud thud and another scream coming from her older brother. Her blood ran cold and the remote dropped out of her hand and fell to the floor. She took the stairs two at a time, racing towards where she could hear her older brother's frantic yelling.

'What is it?' She asked, skidding to a halt outside the bathroom. Tadashi was banging on the door, looking like he was about to throw up. He shook his head and thrust his shoulder against the door again. She had an uneasy feeling that this wasn't just because the door was stuck shut. Tadashi threw his body against it again and cried out in pain, holding his shoulder. 'Let me!' She yelled at him, shoving him out the way. She quickly examined the door and noticed a couple of splinters that her brother had already made in the wood. She stepped back and with a well-aimed kick the door burst open.

Hiro was lying curled up on the floor in the corner. Rena felt her world crash and burn around as her as she realised why Tadashi had been so panicked. And why Hiro had run straight up to his room after school, not wanting to talk to either of them.

Tadashi let out an agonised cry and stumbled backwards. He stood there, seemingly frozen in place. Rena took one look at his wide eyes and rapid breathing and decided to take the situation into her own hands. She ducked out the bathroom and tore down the hallway, opening the cupboard and pulling out as many towels as she could carry. She rushed back to the bathroom and collapsed onto the floor next to her little brother. She turned him gently onto his side and rolled the towels up tightly, pressing them against the long cuts that ran down his arms. The towels turned red horribly fast and she had to change them a lot faster than she thought. She felt tears welling in her eyes but willed them away, forcing her shaking hands to remain still. Any wrong move could cost their little brother his life. Both hands were occupied, so she lent forwards and pressed her forehead to his. He was still warm, but from the pale colour of his face she knew that his life was quickly slipping away.

'Dashi!' She choked out over her shoulder. 'Call an ambulance! NOW!'

Her voice seemed to snap Tadashi out of his daze. He nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket, fumbling with the screen. Eventually, he managed to punch the number in and held the phone to his ear, shaking. Rena turned her attention back to Hiro once she was sure that Tadashi had gotten through.

Tadashi sank down next to her. 'They're coming.' He whispered. Rena nodded numbly, allowing him to take control of one of Hiro's arms. Once her hand was freed she pressed it gently to his neck, only just feeling a weak pulse against her fingers.

'He's still alive.' She said, her voice sounding very far away.

Tadashi nodded and his face crumpled. He started sobbing uncontrollably, fat tears sliding down his cheeks as he processed what was happening. Rena reached her free arm out to comfort him but she was already slipping away.

'No!' She cried, 'no! I need to help them! NO!'

She felt the familiar rush of time passing but didn't move until she landed on solid ground. She opened her eyes and was met with the gut-wrenching sight of the SFIT hall on fire.

Time slowed down as she pushed through the crowds, screaming her brothers names. She came to a halt outside the stairs, already feeling the blistering heat of the inferno on her face. A green blur streaked past her and she lunged after it, screaming Tadashi's name. Her sweating fingers managed to seize the corner of his sleeve and pull him back. Tadashi stumbled backwards and crashed into her, cursing.

'Don't take another step.' She growled hoarsely, the smoke already beginning to affect her. 'I swear to you I will strangle you if you take another step.'

Tadashi ignored her and pulled away from her grip. Then she was screaming. 'TADASHI HAMADA! SON'T YOU DARE! DON'T YOU DARE GO IN THERE! Please!' She gasped pathetically, tears streaming down her face as she pleaded with her stubborn older brother. 'Please. Please don't leave us.'

'I'll be right back! Callaghan is in there! Someone has to help!' Then he was gone, his hat fluttering down onto the stairs behind him as he ran into the building.

Rena stood frozen, her smoke-filled mind desperately trying to process what just happened. She snapped back to her senses just in time for Hiro running past her. She grabbed a fistful of his hoodie and dragged him backwards. He screamed at her and tried to pull away, but she could scarecely hear him over the ringing in her ears. She let go and left him standing by the bushes.

'Stay there.' She croaked, 'I'll get him, I will. Please, just stay there and don't move.'

'But-'

'Please. Hamada rule 23.'

Hiro stared at her, nodding numbly. Rena thrust Tadashi's hat into his shaking hands before turning on her heel and running as fast as she could back towards the building. She was almost there when her world exploded and she was thrown backwards into the sky.

She didn't land on concrete. She landed on something soft and comfortable. She lay there, wishing that she could just drift off to sleep. She had just relieved some of the worst memories in her life, and she did not want to stay awake long enough to think about them. A sob rose in her throat but she choked it back. No, she wasn't weak. She wouldn't let any stupid fragments of the past break her. However, she could not deny that she felt utterly drained and wished for nothing more than to sink into a lovely, dreamless sleep.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Rena sat bolt upright. She felt weird, weightless even. She could barely feel her limbs and she felt lighter than air. She looked down and stifled a scream when she realised she was nothing but a hazy imprint of herself. Like a ghost. She tried to move but found herself rising to the ceiling, bumping her head gently as she reached the top. She stared in horror at her body left on the bed, her face slack and grey.

Doctors and nurses swarmed around her body and it suddenly occurred to her what that beeping was.

She was dead.

She could do nothing but look on in horror as the doctors worked around her, performing all sorts of procedures in order to get her heart to beat again. Their actions were sluggish and they were slurring directions at one another. Rena couldn't decide if this was an affect of her being dead or the fact that her mind was going so fast that her eyes were struggling to keep up. She moved backwards along the ceiling, desperately trying to figure out a way in order for her to stop floating and get back to her body.

'No.' She muttered to herself as she twisted around in the air, 'no! No no no no no no! Come on, please!'

'Rena, my darling. You have done so well.'

Rena gasped as her Mom appeared below her, standing on the floor as though she wasn't a ghost herself. Her wispy hand reached out to her daughter and Rena hesitated, not wanting to go through that again.

Her Mom laughed. 'Don't worry, you won't have to do that again. I promise.'

Rena reached forward and grasped her hand. Her Mom pulled her forward and she felt the floor beneath her feet. The woman's fingers traced Rena's face and she sighed softly. 'You're so beautiful. You've grown so much, and I'm so proud of you.'

Rena's eyes stung. 'I missed you.'

'I missed you too.'

'Mom... what was that?'

'Have you ever heard of the idea about your life flashing before your eyes?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, that's what happens when you die.'

'So.. I'm really dead?'

Her Mom looked at her, 'no, not yet. But you almost are, you're fading.'

Rena looked down and with a jolt of horror realised that her Mom was right. Her ghostly self was fading so quickly she could barely see the faint outline of where her body should be. She hugged her chest, desperately trying to cling onto what little life she had left. 'What happens when I fade completely?'

Her Mom shrugged. 'I don't know. But if you come with me now, we can stop you fading.'

'Come... where?'

'To the afterlife of course!'

'But... what? No! I... I can't! I d..don't want to die! Please Mom!'

The woman looked at her sympathetically. 'I know you don't. But think about it... wouldn't it be nice to leave this all behind? All this pain, all the suffering that you've lived through? How great would it be to rejoin your Dad and I? We can have our own little family again!'

Rena considered it. And she hated herself for it, but she almost said yes. She was right, it would be great to leave all of this behind her. 'What about Hiro? Tadashi? Aunt Cass?'

Before her Mom could reply, Rena turned on her heel and left the dingy room. The lights were dimming and she realised that it was because she had almost faded entirely. Her footsteps were silent as she ran down the hallway, revelling in the fact that she could run as fast as she wanted without running out of breath.

She skidded to a halt outside a waiting room, knowing that her family were inside. She didn't need to open the door, she merely floated through it. She strode over to where her brothers were standing. Tadashi looked as though he had probably vomited, his face was a horrible green colour. He had his arm around Hiro's shoulder. The latter was trembling horribly, his hands balled into fists.

'I'm not giving up.' She said, as loudly and as clearly as she could manage. 'I promise. I won't break my promise Hiro, I swear on it.'

She felt a lump in her throat as she looked at them. They looked so afraid that it made her heart ache. (Did she have a heart in this state?) No, she couldn't leave them. She didn't even know where she was going, but she would never forgive herself if she broke her promise to Hiro. She wasn't going to die. No way. Not if she had anything to do with it.

She turned on her heel and walked back to the room, her stubbornness and determination growing with every step.

'I'm going to live.' She muttered to herself. She noticed when she said this that her body seemed to flicker slightly, then become a tiny bit more solid.

'I'm going to live.' She said again, picking up the pace so that she was running again. 'I'm going to live. I'm going to live. I'M GOING TO LIVE!'

She burst back into the room, feeling more alive by the second. It seemed that her sheer determination was enough to keep her from fading away.. at least for now.

'Mom, how do I... not die?'

Her Mom looked at her and smiled. 'That's my daughter. I knew you weren't going to give up so easily. You need to get back to your body and hopefully the fact that you're still grounded to the Earth will delay your death long enough for you to reconnect with yourself.'

'Okay. Okay! Okay.' Rena said. She strode over to the bed and clambered up on top until she was standing on top of her sleeping form. She was about to crouch down when something grabbed her wrist.

'Rena. Baby. Protect them, alright? You'll do that for me? Promise?'

'Protect them? I- yes! Of course I promise but-' She whispered, remembering the exact same conversation that she had already had with her Dad many years ago. As soon as she uttered those words, she could instantly feel herself becoming stronger. Her chest ached and she realised it was because of the doctors bringing her back to life.

'You have shown strength beyond your years. You have to protect them, they can't do it without you. Tadashi and Hiro - you've only got each other.'

'Do what? Mom?'

But her Mother was already fading away. 'Don't worry about me. I'm not fading away, you're just becoming stronger. I love you, and I'm so proud of you.'

'I.. I love you too.'

'I know.'

'Mom?'

'Yes?' Her voice was merely an echo, she had become so faded. Rena felt a surge of hope as she realised her life force was stronger than ever.

'Will I remember this?'

'I don't know, will you?'

And then she was gone. Rena was tempted to call out her name, to try and find her but she knew that it was stupid. She took a deep breath, as though she was going to submerge herself into water. She slid down until she was lying back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and praying that it was going to work. The aching in her chest increased and she squeezed her eyes shut.

'I am going to live.' She whispered to herself.

A weird sensation passed over her, like she was slotting back into place. She felt weak. Weaker than she'd ever felt in her entire life. And tired. Oh, so tired. Her eyes remained closed as she felt her weak body begin to work again.

She didn't let herself fall asleep until her roaring ears could register the faint sound of the heart monitor.

Rena Hamada was alive.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it isn't inherently obvious, this chapter occurs at the same time as the previous one. (That will make sense once you've read it)

Rena jerked away from him and Tadashi sighed and returned to wiping the side. Some customer had spilled their coffee all over their table and had decided not to tell any of them, leaving a sticky mess behind them. He could hear his sister retreating back upstairs and decided not to ask her to at least finish her shift. Robbie and Iris were coming soon, he could handle the no customers and sticky surfaces until they arrived. He straightened out and wiped the sweat from his brow. It wasn't even hot in the cafe, he'd just done nothing but run around for the past few hours amid the mad rush of customers. Not that he was complaining, the business was great. He wandered back over to the counter and was just about to grab an ice cold glass of lemonade and a muffin to accompany him whilst he did his homework when he heard the unmistakable shattering of glass. He groaned and slid neatly back over the counter. Hiro was probably trying some stupid invention. Actually no, hang on. Hiro was still in the kitchen. Surely that wasn't Rena? She was normally so careful?

'Rena?' He called up the stairs, 'you okay?'

He heard no answer and quickened his pace, jogging up the stairs. His shoes crunched on broken glass and he winced when he realised that she'd smashed a picture. Gently, he bent down and lifted the photograph from the floor. He tipped the shards of glass onto the floor and smiled at the picture. It was a picture of Rena and Tadashi in the river when they were kids. Hiro was sitting on the banking and his tiny face was stretched into a wide grin as he watched he pair of them splash about in the water. Tadashi felt a pang of sadness. This was mere weeks before That Day in which their lives had fallen apart. He sighed and tucked the photograph into his pocket. He was about to stand up when he noticed something so tiny that no one else would have picked up on it. A smear of red amongst the glass. It was tiny, almost unnoticeable but the tiny mark of blood sent alarm bells ringing in his head. He stood up and, as if on cue, another smash of glass from upstairs and a scream.

'Rena?' He yelled up again, his heart hammering in his chest. He tucked the photo in his pocket and lumbered clumsily up the stairs. He came to the top and wiped his sweating palms on his jeans. No, he was overreacting. She was fine. But... the threat. What if they'd found her? He didn't even know who they were but ever since they'd sent him that... that thing. God, he was such an idiot. Why didn't he watch over his sister more? And Hiro! Hiro was on his own upstairs, for all Tadashi knew he was dead...

'Dashi.'

Tadashi nearly cried with relief when he heard her voice, but this relief quickly vanished when he processed what was actually happening. Her voice was so slurred that his first thought was that she'd been drinking. She was stood in the kitchen, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest and shaking. She was looking at him but Tadashi had the distinct impression that she couldn't see him. Her eyes were glassy and faraway, her pupils still as dilated as they had been down in the cafe. He forced himself to remain calm, panicking and freezing up would be no good to anyone. He had the annoying tendency to do that sometimes. His sister retched and he snapped out of his daze.

'Rena?' He said cautiously, stepping towards her. She let out a strangled kind of sob and he felt a stab of guilt. He should have picked up on this earlier. She shook her head and tried to walk towards him but she hit the table with a sharp cry. Tadashi reached forward to grab her wrist but she shrank away from him, clamping her hands over her ears.

'S...stop.' She sobbed.

'I didn't say anything.' Tadashi replied anxiously. He didn't know what was going on and that terrified him. He'd spent months poring over medical textbooks and hadn't read much like this. It was like she was having some kind of fit or hallucination. 'Rena. Look at me.

She shook her head, but Tadashi had the feeling that she hadn't heard him at all. He stood there and watched her, unsure of what to do. he hated being unsure, he wasn't used to it.

'I...I don't.. are you alright?' He asked her desperately, his mind working on overtime as he tried to figure out a solution. He didn't want to scare her by approaching any closer. The last thing that he wanted was for his little sister to be afraid of him. But she needed help. Would Hiro know what to do? But he didn't want to drag him into this if he didn't have to. Aunt Cass? No, she was down in the cafe and he knew he couldn't leave Rena there alone in this weird state. He exhaled deeply. He had to come up with something. Why was his brain failing him now?! If only Baymax was completed.

He reached for his phone in his pocket but cursed loudly when he realised that he left it on the counter downstairs. Rena flinched away from the loud noise and Tadashi cringed as she stood on the broken glass, the small crunch seemed to echo around the tiny kitchen. The air was so tense you could practically taste its bitterness.

Rena looked up at him and her face was so pale that Tadashi winced. 'Dashi... please... I-' She stepped forwards and her knees buckled. Time seemed to slow down. Tadashi lunged forwards but he was too slow. She came crashing to the floor next to the pitiful pile of glass and her eyes rolled back up into her head. She twitched once and then lay still.

Tadashi crouched on the floor next to her, still trying to process what had just happened. Then, it all hit at once and his brotherly protectiveness went into overdrive. He did exactly as he should, gently moving her so she was in the recovery position. He placed his shaking fingers gingerly to her neck and was relieved to find a pulse. But it was incredibly weak and her breathing was so faint that you could barely detect it. She was slipping fast, and the urgency of the situation heightened his senses as well as his heart rate. He crouched back on his knees, prosthetic digging uncomfortably into him but he scarcely noticed.

'HIRO!' He screamed as loud as he could. He didn't dare leave her side. Because he had no idea what had happened, this only made things about ten times more dangerous. If he left and she vomited, or had a heart attack then she would probably be dead by the time he came back. The thought terrified him enough to remain in place. 'HIRO! PLEASE! HIRO!'

His younger brother came sauntering down the stairs, rolling his eyes. 'What is it now? Need the genius of the family to help you figure out the toaster?' He materialised in the doorway and caught sight of Tadashi kneeling on the floor and trembling, Rena lying unconscious at his feet. His face paled and his grin slipped off his face. 'What the hell happened?!'

Tadashi shook his head. 'I don't know what's wrong. Call an ambulance, she's barely breathing!'

Hiro nodded and took his phone out his pocket, immediately punching the number in. 'Ambulance! Please!' He walked backwards out of the room, giving Tadashi a thumbs up sign despite the terrified look on his face.

Tadashi turned back to his sister and fought back a sob. He knew something like this was coming. He could have prevented this! Why hadn't he thought to be more careful? Ever since that warning had come in the mail he'd been more on guard than ever. Now he'd let it slip, and look where it got them! Of course he could have told her... No. This was clearly a mystery that he had to solve on his own. He did not want either of his siblings to get infused into this mess any further. Rena had done absolutely nothing and yet here she was, lying on the floor almost dead. But still, Tadashi hadn't done anything either! He hadn't understood a word of that messy handwriting... what was he going to 'pay' for? What the hell had he done? Did these people do this to his little sister? He didn't even know who they were! There was a very high chance that that letter was just a stupid prank and he was overreacting as usual. He balled his hands into fists. Why them? What had the Hamadas ever done to anyone?

Hiro came back and knelt on the other side of their sister. Neither of them said anything for a minute before he younger brother said 'I called the ambulance. They're on their way.'

Tadashi nodded wordlessly. His hands moved seamlessly, constantly checking and adjusting and moving. Rena didn't even stir and this worried him greatly. He hoped that she would have awoken by now but she was remaining stubbornly still.

'Can I help?' Hiro asked anxiously, biting his lip. Tadashi noted the slight shaking of his hands and felt tears welling up in his eyes.

'No.' Tadashi cleared his throat loudly, 'I mean, no. They should be here any second. I, uh- go get Aunt Cass. Bring her up.'

Hiro nodded meekly and scurried downstairs. Tadashi let the tears roll freely down his face for just a minute before hurriedly wiping them away. Aunt Cass appeared in the doorway, her face ashen. 'What happened?! How long has she been out?'

'About five minutes.' Tadashi replied hoarsely. 'And for the first question? I have absolutely no idea.'

Cass looked stricken. Clearly she thought at least one of her genius nephews had an answer for what had happened to her niece. 'Is she alright? I don't... I have no idea...'

'It's alright Aunt Cass.' Tadashi said, although he didn't make any move towards comforting her physically. He gave A Look to Hiro, who immediately understood and wrapped his arms around her. Cass hugged him back, the look of panic on her face still not subsiding.

'She's gonna be fine.' Tadashi said reassuringly, despite the horrible voice in the back of his mind telling him that he was wrong. He pushed it away. At least until Rena was safe. He could hold on until then.

Right?

'Only one family member allowed I'm afraid.' Said the paramedic apologetically, 'you have to decide now, we need to get her to the hospital and fast.'

Tadashi gave the guy a look of fury. He knew it wasn't his fault and yet he still couldn't help but feel angry. As soon as they'd arrived, they'd dragged Hiro and Tadashi our the room as they shouted words that he only half understood. All he knew was that his little sister was very close to death and he couldn't even hold her hand.

'You go.' He said automatically to Cass, 'I'll follow in the car with Hiro.'

Cass nodded, clearly relieved that Tadashi wasn't going to fight her on this. She stepped carefully into the ambulance. 'I'll see you at the hospital. I love you! Call me if-' But her voice was cut off by the door slamming. The lights went on and immediately the ambulance turned and sped out of sight, leaving Tadashi alone on the pavement. He ran a hand through his hair, uttered a curse word so foul that he was momentarily surprised that he even knew what it meant.

Tadashi turned and hurried back into the cafe, slamming the door behind him. Hiro immediately jumped up from the table he was sitting at. He stared up at Tadashi, his eyes wide and face pale. He was trembling from head to foot and Tadashi could see the tear tracks running down his face. The last fifteen minutes or so had been intense. Really intense. There was a lot of paramedics and a lot of shouting, which immediately freaked the kid out. And then they had refused to tell Hiro what was going on and had refused to let him anywhere near the ambulance. Probably because he was practically in hysterics.

'Is she okay? Is she dead? Please don't say she's dead I swear-'

Tadashi pulled him into a fierce hug, crushing Hiro against his chest. Surprisingly, the younger Hamada hugged him back instead of pulling away like he ordinarily would have done. 'She's not dead.' Tadashi said thickly. Don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry. If he cried then Hiro would panic even more.

Hiro exhaled, nodding feverishly. 'What's wrong with her? Is she going to be okay?'

'I don't know. They wouldn't tell me. Get your shoes on, we're gonna follow them in the car.'

Hiro swallowed. 'What... now? I...'

Tadashi squeezed his hand. 'Yes, now. We, I, need to make sure that she's okay. I know you don't like hospitals, but we can't put this off. Okay?'

The younger boy sighed. 'Yeah, I know. You're right.'

Tadashi pulled neatly into the parking spot despite the trembling in his hands. He shared Hiro's combined fear and hatred of hospitals. They had been in there too many times, from the time that Hiro almost died to the time that Tadashi was in the fire and now Rena almost dying. Oh, and the time that their parents died. Some people may call it an irrational fear but in Tadashi's mind it was perfectly reasonable. Over the years, they'd been in hospital way too many times for it to be normal.

'Come on.' Tadashi said heavily. He got out and took a deep breath of air. He eyed the foreboding building and felt a tingling sensation in his right leg. He tried to ignore it, telling himself that it wasn't real. Not that it did any good. No matter how hard he tried, he could never quite shake the phantom limb pain. Hiro appeared without a word by his side and grabbed his hand. 'He must have been scared,' Tadashi thought to himself, 'he hasn't done that since he was a kid.'

Tadashi pulled his brother along and fished for his phone in his pocket. He had remembered to grab it off the counter before they left and he was suddenly grateful for his good memory when he read the text he had received from Cass, detailing where the room was. That was all though, no updates on Rena or anything. He quickened his pace, texting whilst he walked. He was just about to slip his phone back in his pocket when it vibrated in his hand.

Honey Lemon  
Hey, you on your way?

He bit back a curse, mindful of the handful of people that were around and about. In all the chaos, he'd completely forgotten to tell his friends that none of them were gonna be able to make it to Fred's. Fred had managed to get a hold of some new gaming console a month before it had been released and they were going to waste the afternoon away playing video games together. He tapped out a brief response to the girl, not wanting to detail exactly what had happened.

Tadashi  
Sorry, we're not gonna be able to make it. Will call you later or something.

He felt slightly guilty about leaving his friends in the dark but also didn't want to worry them. He'd tell them later, when he actually knew what was going on. He pushed open the doors to the hospital and they sped past a number of doctors and patients alike. Tadashi didn't take in any of their faces though, he was too busy trying to get to his sister. They rounded the corner and he punched the elevator call button perhaps a little too harshly. He leaned against the wall as they moved up through the floors, silently wishing for it to go faster.

'You okay?' He asked Hiro, feeling bad that he had momentarily forgotten that his little brother was even there. Hiro nodded but Tadashi wasn't convinced. He didn't want to push him though so they remained in silence until they had reached the fourth floor.

'Which way?' Hiro asked quietly, his voice shaking.

'I don't know, Aunt Cass just said fourth floor. I'm sure we'll find them though.' Tadashi said confidently. He turned his head to the side, weighing up the options. 'Let's just go this way, we can always ask someone if we get lost.'

They rounded the corner and took a left, and then a right. They came to a dead end more than once and had to re-trace their steps but eventually Tadashi caught a glimpse of Cass's work uniform and made a beeline directly towards her.

'Aunt Cass!' He called, forcing himself to sound cheery.

Cass turned and her worried expression melted into one of relief when she saw her nephews. She crashed into Tadashi and gave him a suffocating hug, almost making is ribs crack. 'Thank god you're here.' She murmured into the older Hamada's shoulder.

'What's happening?' He asked her, craning his neck for a glimpse of a doctor or someone that he could ask for more a better idea of whether or not his sister was dead or not.

'She's just down there.' Cass replied anxiously, pointing down the corridor. 'They won't let me go anywhere near though. I don't know what's going on but I was told to wait here and a doctor will come see me.'

'Okay.' Tadashi said, nodding. 'There's a waiting room just through here, do you wanna wait there?'

She nodded and they sat down together in the dingy little room. There was a man in the corner reading an old magazine that had been left there but apart from the that the waiting room was empty. Tadashi had no idea which part of the hospital they were even in, he hadn't bothered to read the signs as they breezed past them. Aunt Cass was working her way steadily through a pile of gossip magazines, skimming through the pages for any interesting recipes. Hiro sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, tapping subconsciously on the arm of his chair. Tadashi took his phone out for something to do to distract himself from the worry gnawing away at his insides. He drafted out a text to Honey Lemon to explain where they were and deleted it. He rephrased it and deleted it again. On and on this went for about fifteen minutes before he admitted defeat and exited out of the app completely. He exhaled slowly and tipped his head back towards the ceiling. The fluorescent lights stung his eyes and he squeezed them shut, a million thoughts and questions running through his empty head. What happened to Rena? Was she dead? Was this anything to do with the note that had been shoved through their letterbox? He was pretty certain that it had everything to do with it. His fingers moved automatically to the crumpled piece of paper he had shoved in his pocket, bitterly wishing that he'd never seen it.

Two weeks ago, it was just a normal Saturday. Tadashi awoke before anyone else, as always. He'd gotten dressed and quietly made his way downstairs. He did the same as he did every weekend. He made his toast and coffee and settled down at the kitchen table with a book. It was one of his all time favourites, the Great Gatsby. His brother and sister often made fun of him for liking 'old' books but Tadashi didn't care. It was a book that his Father had read to him when he was younger. Although Tadashi was small, the story had enthralled him. It was one that he had always kept close to his heart, he was sentimental like that. He remembered standing up to refill his glass of water and hearing the sound of the letterbox opening and closing again. Tadashi was already preoccupied with his novel and thoughts of the various equations that he would need for his homework. Otherwise, he would have immediately clocked on to the strangeness of the situation. The sun had barely arisen and already the mail was being delivered? The mail was usually delivered right before lunch. For as long as he could remember he'd run downstairs right before making his lunch and there would be the mail!

Tadashi scooped up the dirty envelope and frowned. There was no address, or a stamp. He opened the door to scan the street for any sign of the letter deliverer, but no one was about. He stepped outside and looked around but there were no signs of life. Sighing, he stepped back inside and looked at the letter again. Nope, there was definitely no address. Tadashi debated whether or not to open it. He didn't know who it was for! What if it was some kind of secret letter especially written for someone in the house? It was pretty unlikely but still. However, his curiosity got the better of him and he tore the envelope open. A single piece of paper was inside and he took it out, not immediately recognising the untidy scrawl nor what it said. He squinted at it and nearly dropped it in his horror.

YOU WON'T BE SAFE FOR MUCH LONGER. WE ARE COMING. EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND CHERISH WILL BE DEAD, STARTING WITH YOUR BELOVED FAMILY. THEN, WE WILL KILL YOU.

Tadashi stood frozen in a mix of terror and shock. Surely this was a joke? But something told him that this note was serious. Someone was planning on hurting them.

For the last couple of weeks, that note was all he could think about. He'd tried to push it from his mind but it remained stubbornly in his head, a tiny little nagging thing that refused to move. They were in danger, he knew that. And now he'd let Rena get hurt. He knew that people were coming for them and yet he wasn't competent enough to stop them. Now his little sister could die all because he didn't think to warn her. What was he thinking, keeping something like that a secret from her? He had always told her everything. After all, he had no choice. Rena had always had this annoying knack of being able to see right through him all of the time. He'd let her down, and if she died he would never, ever forgive himself for it. The question remained of who the note was intended for, but as Tadashi's eyes drifted over to the small form of his baby brother he had a nagging sensation that there was something Hiro wasn't telling him. Maybe the note was meant for him? Tadashi struggled to think of anything that Hiro had done to anyone, the kid wasn't exactly very scary. Sure, he'd got caught up in botfighting a while back but it had been months since then! Besides, Hiro had never pissed off anyone major... right? Tadashi had enough confidence in his brother's common sense. No, it can't have been for him. Then who was the note for? Or was this just some random psycho who just wanted to see their family suffer for no reason other than to get sick enjoyment out of it?

Tadashi was so enveloped in his worries that he didn't notice a doctor had entered the room until he was right in front of them. His head snapped forward and he was suddenly wide awake again.

'Guardian of Rena Hamada please.' The doctor said. Tadashi scanned his face for any kind of giveaway of news but the doctor remained pensive.

Aunt Cass stood and nervously followed the doctor out into the hallway. She didn't close the door behind her and Tadashi felt a rush of gratitude towards her. She knew that her nephews would want to be updated as well as she did. Unfortunately for them, the doctor was speaking so quietly that Tadashi had to strain his ears to hear even a couple of words. He grabbed Hiro's hand almost instinctively as the words "double kidney failure" met his ears.

'Shit.' He muttered under his breath. 'Shit shit shit.'

Hiro gave him a panicked look and Tadashi noticed the warning signs. The rapid rise and fall of his chest, the way his eyes darted frantically around the room and the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. His brotherly instincts jumped out and he knelt in front of the teen, suddenly uninterested in anything that the doctor had to say.

'Breathe. It's okay. Breathe. After me, yeah? Breathe.'

Fortunately, he had noticed the panic attack faster than Hiro had so the younger Hamada was quickly able to get in under control. He nodded and followed Tadashi's instructions silently. His breathing became normal a lot faster than usual and Tadashi beamed at him despite the circumstances.

'That was great. Really great. I'm so prou-'

A shout interrupted him mid-sentence and shocked him into silence. He whirled around just in time to spot the doctor bolting down the corridor after the signs of commotion. Tadashi stood quickly, heart hammering in his chest. He grabbed Hiro's wrist, not wanting to leave his brother alone and vulnerable in the waiting room.

'What's happening?' He demanded of Cass as soon as he got out of the dingy little room.

Cass shook her head, her lips pursed tightly together. Tadashi let go of Hiro's wrist and sprinted down the hall, ignoring their protests behind him.

Somehow, the oldest Hamada knew what was happening before he even heard the flatline. He burst around the corner and ran straight into a startled looking nurse.

'Sir!' She squeaked indignantly, 'I'm going to have to ask that you leave this area at once-'

'No!' Tadashi cried, trying to barge past her. He felt slightly guilty but it was nothing compared to the burning desire to reach Rena. 'That's my sister! Please! I need to see her! Please!'

The nurse shook her head, close to tears herself. 'Please get back! You're only hindering the doctors!'

'Dashi!' It was Hiro. He grabbed his older brother's wrist and pulled him backwards, staring at him in shock. 'What are you doing?!'

Tadashi felt like he was going to be sick. Nope, he definitely was going to be sick. He shook his head at Hiro and dived into the bathroom. Fortunately, there had been one right opposite them. He collapsed onto the floor and retched disgustingly, his whole body shuddering with coughs as he vomited into the stall. Rena was dead. She was dead. She'd flatlined and it was all his fault. If he had noticed then she wouldn't be dead. His fault. His fault.

He sat back onto his knees and let out a howl of misery, his hands balling into fists. It wasn't fair! Why'd life never go right for him? First his beloved parents, and now his sister? The person that knew him better than anyone was dead and it was all his fault.

'Tadashi!' Hiro was at his side, pulling at Tadasbi's arms uselessly. He never was very strong. Tadashi looked up at his younger brother through blurry eyes and fought past his instinct to curl up on the floor and simply fall asleep. He stood jerkily, barely standing on his own. Hiro flung himself at him and they remained hugging for a long time, long enough so that Tadashi's tears had dried up. Hiro pulled away from him and stared at him in the eyes.

'She's not dead.' The kid said, so confidently that Tadashi almost let himself believe it.

'Hiro... I heard the flatline-'

'I can't believe you'd give up on her so easily. It's Rena! She's not dying, I won't let her. She won't let herself, you know she won't.'

'Hiro, please.' Tadashi knew he didn't really believe it, he was just resorting to denial. It broke his heart to say that Hiro was wrong but he wouldn't set himself up for disappointment.

Tears shone in his brother's eyes but he shook his head stubbornly. 'Nope. They'll bring her back. They will. THEY WILL. Come on.'

He dragged Tadashi out into the hallway and Tadashi found himself beginning to believe him. Yeah, this was Rena! She wouldn't let a little thing like this stop her. This was the girl that twisted her ankle in the middle of a race when she was 12 and kept running until she won. He looked at Hiro with a mix of admiration and pride. Yeah. He was right. Rena was going to survive.

They both stood in the hallway together. Tadashi took Hiro's hand and squeezed it. Hiro smiled weakly back at him, his confidence already wavering. Tadashi knew he was a lot more terrified than he was letting on and fought down the urge to hug him again. They were fine as they were.

'I'm not giving up on you.' He whispered. A shiver ran down his spine and installed a new sense of confidence inside him. Deep down, Tadashi was certain that Rena was alive. Even if the pile of sick in the bathroom and the tears still in his eyes said differently.

'She never gave up on you.' Hiro said sadly, 'even when I did. After the fire, I'd given up completely. Rena never did. She always believed that you'd pull through. So I'm not shutting down again, I'm not going to stop believing. I don't care how sappy that sounds. Rena deserves someone to still believe in her.'

'Yeah.' Tadashi said, 'she does. I'm sorry I didn't do that right away.'

'You heard her flatline Tadashi, I don't blame you. But she's alive.'

Tadashi turned to see Cass running down the hallway towards her nephews, a look of upmost relief and happiness on her face. Cass opened her mouth but before she could say anything to them Tadashi smiled.

'Yeah.' He said, 'she is.'


	7. Chapter 7

'This fucking SUCKS.'

Hiro slid further down into his chair, drumming his fingers anxiously on the arms. His eyes drifted over to the hospital bed for the hundredth time that hour. Just as last time, the wait for her to wake up was killing him. All the confidence that he shown the previous day had completely disappeared. He knew she was going to live right there, but the danger of sepsis and complications of surgery kind of overruled it. Still, he liked to imagine that he was taking things better than Tadashi was. Never in his life did he think this would be the case but for some reason his older brother had taken this news particularly bad. Tadashi hadn't slept in over a day and it was definitely taking his toll on him. Hiro had tried to force him to go home but Tadashi stubbornly refused to.

'Mhmm.' Speaking of the devil. Tadashi was slumped forwards in his chair, his head nodding. Every now and then he would fall asleep and this head would snap back up again quickly.

Hiro stared at him in bewilderment. He knew what Tadashi was like, but this was beyond anything that Hiro had expected. Sure, he knew that his older brother would spend the entire time shitting himself but it was very unlike for Tadashi to destroy himself. It may sound dramatic but Hiro had a nagging thought in the back of his mind that if Rena didn't wake up for a while Tadashi would end up in a hospital bed himself. It was weird, almost as though he blamed himself? Which was stupid considering that not even the doctors had any idea what had happened. They had suspected some kind of overdose and had taken blood samples which had been sent away for testing. Tadashi had taken this news particularly badly. Hiro was just glad that she was still alive.

Hiro sighed, sliding down so far that he was hanging off his chair. He dropped onto the floor and lent against the wall. His back ached from sitting in the tiny, uncomfortable chair all day. And when he said all day, he meant all day. It was early evening and Aunt Cass had left at lunch time. Iris and Robbie were swamped under the customers. Sunday lunch was one of the busiest shifts of the week and Hiro had insisted that she left to go help them. He knew that deep down, Cass appreciated the gesture. One of the main similarities between her and Rena was that they both buried themselves underneath work in order to distract themselves when anything bad happened. Seriously. Rena had completed three weeks worth of coursework in about two days when Tadashi had landed himself in hospital before summer. She didn't even need to do it, she just buried herself in it so she would have any excuse not to think about Tadashi in hospital. And Aunt Cass was exactly the same, she'd tie herself to the cafe even when she knew full well that she didn't want to be there. Hiro used to resent them for it but as he got older he grew to understand it. But Tadashi? When hit with trauma Tadashi would sink into it fully. Not normally to this degree though. Hiro knew full well that his brother was spiralling and he also knew full well that there was pretty much nothing that he could do to prevent it.

'Dashi? Oi! ... Dashi!' So much for trying to have a half-decent conversation to distract himself from the heart monitor and the IV line.

'Wha-?' tadashi mumbled. It only took Hiro practically screaming his name at him from across the tiny room.

'Two things. One, did you tell them in the end?'

'Tell who?'

Hiro shook his head. They'd discussed this loads and yet Tadashi seemed to be too sleep deprived to remember the fact that he still needed to let his best friends know that Rena was fighting for her life. Brilliant. 'Uhhh... Honey Lemon? Wasabi? Fred? Gogo? You know... your FRIENDS?'

'Oh! Oh yeah. Sorry, I was a bit out of it then.' Tadashi shook his head and sat up. He yawned and grabbed his phone from the chair next to him.

'You um.. gonna go to sleep anytime soon?'

Tadashi laughed and ran a hand through his hair, still looking at his phone screen. 'Don't worry about me, I'm fine.'

'Yeah. Says the guy screaming and vomiting on the bathroom floor.' Hiro muttered, staring at his trainers.

Tadashi sighed, his fabricated mask of happiness slipping away for just a second. 'That was over a day ago, I'm fine now. Also, says the one that had a panic attack in the waiting room.'

'No it wasn't! It lasted like... ten seconds anyway.'

'Mmm.'

'Doesn't count.'

'Sure it doesn't.'

'Shut up.'

'Gladly.' Tadashi yawned again and stretched out in his chair. Hiro saw out of the corner of his eye as he looked at Rena and his face fell. The oldest Hamada chewed absentmindedly on his thumbnail, stopping as soon as he realised that Hiro was watching him do it. Hiro cleared his throat awkwardly and averted his eyes back to the tiled floor. The tension was so thick he could pretty much taste it. Hiro felt tears welling in his eyes and swiped them away quickly before Tadashi could notice. Here he was. Again. For the second time within months. Sitting across from one of the only members of his family who was dying and he could do absolutely nothing but sit and wait for Rena to wake up. It was like some kind of vicious cycle. Would a few months pass and he'd sit here again? Ever since he could remember, things had always gone wrong for him. Would it be like this forever?

It took him way too long to realise that he was spiralling. He closed his eyes briefly and gulped in a huge lungful of air, the slight acidity of the hospital air making him cringe. It stank of antiseptic and general hospital cleanliness. AKA, his least favourite smell ever. He needed air. He stood so abruptly that Tadashi jumped and glanced at him with worry.

'You okay?' Tadashi asked suspiciously. Maybe he noticed the look on his face or his eyes that weren't quite dry.

Hiro ignored him and grabbed his hoodie that was hung on the back of his chair. He shrugged it on and sighed, running a hand through his hair again. 'Yeah. I'm fine. Just... just need some air.'

Tadashi nodded, still looking concerned though. 'Do you want me to come with?'

Hiro glanced at Rena. He hated the idea of her awaking to an empty room. 'No, it's alright. I won't be long.'

'Okay, as long as you're sure.'

'I am.'

With a final glance at his sister, he stepped out into the corridor and walked swiftly down the bustling hallway. His shoes squeaked on the too-clean floor and he winced at the horrible noise. Still, it was better than the sounds of the machines that reminded him that Rena was dying. No, not dying. Just almost dead. She was still alive. Wait, no. Was she dying? He punched the button for the elevator and sighed as he stepped in. These thoughts were exactly the kind of thing that he was trying to run away from!

He turned to the right outside the main doors and walked briskly towards the play park. There was nobody around, which he was glad of. He didn't want people thinking he was really weird for hanging around in a park on his own when he wasn't a little kid. Not that he would have been bothered, but still. he kicked the gate open angrily and it clanged shut behind him. After about ten seconds of internal debate, he plonked himself down on one of the swings, making sure that the horrible old building was behind him. His fingers curled around the chains, already beginning to get cold in the early November evening. He shut his eyes and kicked off, soaring into the air and not caring that he looked stupid or that he was most definitely too old to be playing in the park. The cold air was refreshing on his face and he found a genuine smile creeping across his face. Right there and then, it was easy to forget about everything that had happened. Not just in the past day or so but for a long time. Hiro could pretend that he was a tiny child again, before anything bad had ever happened to him.

Then the swing slowed down and his feet hit the gravel. He opened his eyes again and lent against the rusty metal of the chains. His hands found their way back to his pockets and he rammed them deep inside in an attempt to warm them up slightly. He knew he had to go inside soon: Tadashi would be waiting for him. Maybe Rena would be as well, although he didn't linger on that happy thought for too long. As terrible as he felt, he tried not to think about Rena too much. The mere thought that she was even in hospital in the first place was enough to make his stomach twist nastily. He couldn't decide if it was worse when Tadashi was in hospital or not. At least when he was here a few months back they knew what was wrong with him. He exhaled through his nose and, for the hundredth time that day, tried to come up with something that could have happened to her. In his mind, it had to be some kind of poison. Not only because her symptoms matched those of poison victims, but also because only poison would be able to bring Rena down. Seriously, she was a lot tougher than she gave herself credit for. Or she was just too stubborn for her own good, whichever. She was hardly ever ill, and when she was she simply just pretended that she wasn't. Like the time when she had the flu and had refused to acknowledge it until she was so ill that she literally couldn't move. Tadashi had forced her to stay at home instead of go to school and she was fuming about it, even if she couldn't even manage to walk to school. Hiro remembered the way in which she'd slurred her words and didn't seem to remember...well, anything. He hadn't yet admitted to Tadashi that she'd caught him sneaking in Friday night, mainly because he didn't want to admit that he'd been botfighting again. Besides, it was no problem! He was fine, it was just a one time thing. That wasn't the point anyway. Tadashi hadn't expressed to him his guilt about not recognising that Rena needed help but he didn't need to. Hiro couldn't quite explain how but he knew that Tadashi was kicking himself for not helping her before she'd collapsed. He felt the same himself, he should have said something as soon as she'd vomited right in front of him. If he hadn't had been so self-obsessed and wrapped up in his own problems then maybe he would have been able to spare a second to help out his sister when she needed him. This whole situation made him want to stand up and run back home so he could sit in his bed and cry about it.

A shiver suddenly ran down his spine, spooking him so much that he almost fell off the swing. He half jumped, half fell from the swing and whirled around to face the hospital. A horrible nagging feeling in the back of his mind told him that he was being watched, and his mind went into overdrive as he spotted a figure walking back towards the hospital. From where he was stood, all he could see was that the person was tall and, judging by the length of their shaggy blonde hair, a man. Hiro narrowed his eyes; he recognised that guy from somewhere. He had no idea where, but he had a bad feeling about it. For some unexplained reason, the guy practically radiated bad vibes. Hiro had no idea how he knew this but he suddenly felt a lot more unsafe, despite the fact that he was literally walking away from the raven-haired teen. Hiro waited until he was out of sight and then bolted towards the doors as fast as his legs could carry him, not stopping until he was safely in the elevator. He clutched at the stitch in his side, thankful that it was empty so nobody could see his pathetic panting. He lifted his head and blew his fringe out of his eyes so he could look at his reflection. He looked pretty crazy, his eyes were wide and fearful and his face was almost shockingly pale. Well, it was nice to know that there was yet another thing he could add to his growing list of anxieties. He placed a freezing cold hand to his chest and breathed out through his nose, trying to convince himself that everything would turn out alright.


	8. Chapter 8

'Have you done the deed?'

'Yes Sir.'

'Good.'

The man turned to face the anxious teen in front of him. The kid tried to look as relaxed as possible but he knew better. Everyone feared him, this mere teenager was no exception. 'Impressive work.'

'Thank you Sir. Can I just ask... why didn't we want to kill her?'

Sir turned to face the boy and he stepped back in fear. Sir chuckled, the kid's fear simply amused him. 'My boy, think of the bigger picture. We want this boy to suffer. We want him to doubt everything he thinks he knows, we want him to tear himself apart with guilt. I would like to see his pain and I am going to use his loved ones as pawns.'

The boy shivered. 'I... I understand Sir.'

Sir gave a curt nod and dismissed him with a wave of his hand. The boy pushed his horn-rimmed glasses further up his nose and pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes. Sir knew he was hesitating, he had another question. But unfortunately for him, he was in no mood to talk.

'GO!' He snapped angrily. His tone was enough for the boy's face to drain of colour and he left without another word. Sir grunted with displeasure and began to pace the room. His plan was beginning to work. First, he was going to slowly begin to hurt every single one of the boy's loved ones. Now that the pathetic girl had been hit, it was time for the next step. He walked over to his desk and sat at the chair, taking off his hat and setting it on the desk next to him. His laptop whirred to life and he smirked at the image displayed on the screen. Excellent.

'I will get my revenge, my love.' He purred, gently stroking the photo of a strikingly beautiful woman. 'I will destroy him and everyone he loves. I will tear his life apart just as he tore mine apart.'

The laptop pinged with a message and he scanned it over briefly. He tapped a few keys and slammed it shut in satisfaction. Good.

Hiro Hamada was going to pay for everything he'd done to him.  
\------------------------------------------------------  
Rena was aware of a painful, dull ache that radiated throughout her entire body. She shifted slightly and winced as shock-waves of pain were sent reverberating across her frame; ricocheting off her bones and settling deep inside her muscles. She almost didn't open her eyes. The desire to simply shut down and go back to sleep was overwhelming. But her need to know what those sounds were and what was going on won her over. Almost reluctantly, her eyes slid open and she was instantly almost blinded with a fluorescent light and gleaming white ceiling tiles. Not a promising start.

Naturally, her hair fell in front of her face as soon as she lifted her head even slightly. She lifted her hand to brush it out of her eyes and a slight tugging sensation in her hand confirmed her worst suspicions. She glanced down and groaned at the cannula stuck into it. Yay! A hospital. She tried to sit up but found that she was both too exhausted and too in pain to. Carefully, she pressed a hand to her chest. For whatever reason she felt as though her entire torso had been crushed under some kind of immense force. It then occurred to her that she had no idea what had happened to land her here. Her entire upper body hurt the most and she could feel a couple of stitches in her palms. She scrunched up her nose and yep, there was a breathing tube that she could not believe she'd missed. In fact, Rena was only just beginning to fully process her surroundings. So she was in the hospital, that much she knew. She hurt a lot and she didn't know why. She wanted this breathing tube off. Now.

She shifted positions so she was more in a sitting position and coughed. As soon as she did so, her vision of the hospital was obstructed as someone flung themselves at her. From the way in which they managed to both be gentle enough as to not hurt her at all yet suffocate her in a hug she knew instantly it was Tadashi.

'Hey.' She whispered. Her voice was gravelly and the word scratched at her dry throat.

Tadashi pulled away and glared at her. 'Don't pull that on me. You almost die and the first word you say is HEY?'

Rena smiled weakly. 'Isn't that basically what you said though?' That's all she could manage to get out. Wordlessly, Tadashi reached over for the water jug on the bedside table and handed her a glass. She took it and gulped it down gratefully, the glass shaking in her weak hand. 'I'm fine.' She snapped, noticing how Tadashi was eyeing the glass warily. She'd been awake for ten seconds and he was already irking her. A new record, it had to be.

'Okay!' He said, holding his hands up.

'I...' Rena hesitated, unsure of what to ask. Her head was pounding and it felt strangely fuzzy, almost as though someone had shoved cotton wool in her ears. 'What? How? I don't...?'

Tadashi shook his head, his voice thick. 'Honestly, I don't know what happened either. You were really weird for a while and then... and then...' he swallowed, tears forming in his eyes. Rena felt sick. Whatever happened, clearly it hadn't been good. Her chest throbbed nastily again and a sharp jolt went up her arm where one of the cannulas was connected. 'And before you ask where Hiro is, he's here. He went to go grab some food.'

Rena nodded and sighed in relief. She knew that Hiro wouldn't abandon her. Tadashi seemed close to tears so she didn't really want to push him any further with questions that he was unable to answer. The teen in question sat down heavily in the chair behind him and Rena squinted at him, noticing the ways in which his shoulders slumped forwards and how there were dark circles around his eyes.

'When was the last time you slept?' She asked him suspiciously. God, this was SO Tadashi. She remembered sitting opposite him when Hiro was in her place. Tadashi had gone as long as possible without sleeping, determined to always keep an eye on Hiro. He'd passed out after about four days of refusing to leave the hospital. It was a good thing that she'd woken up earlier, before Tadashi managed to kill himself or something. It occurred to her then that she had no idea how long she'd been out, just as she had no idea about what had landed her there in the first place.

Tadashi ignored her. 'I'm gonna call a doctor, alright? They'll need to know that you're awake.'

Rena sat up quickly to protest and instantly regretted it. It was the tiniest movement but the pain shut her up. 'Fine!' She muttered through gritted teeth. Apparently Tadashi was too exhausted to notice because he simply nodded and left to find a doctor. Rena sighed and reached across to fiddle with the machines until she found the controls for the painkiller drip. She had no idea which it was but cranked it right up, assuming it was morphine. Sitting back and waiting for the medicine to work, she sat up and surveyed the room properly. It was extremely small with what she presumed as an even smaller bathroom leading off from it. Chairs were scattered haphazardly across the room and she could spot her family's stuff littered across them. Tadashi's cap had been thrown on the chair to her left and Hiro's hoodie was draped over another chair by the door. Half of the room was also occupied by her bed and the million machines that had been keeping her alive. Again, her mind wandered as to why she was here in the first place. It worried her that she seemed to have little to no memory of what had happened.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of her brothers approaching. Her head turned towards the doorway just in time to spot Hiro standing there, staring at her. His eyes were wide and he dropped the snacks he was holding to the floor. He kicked them to the side and stepped towards his sister.

'I've... I've a bone to pick with you.' He said. He raised a hand to point at her threateningly but Rena wasn't stupid. Despite her slightly fractured state of mind she still saw how badly both his hand and his voice shook. 'You... you promised me! You promised me!'

'Hey!' Rena said, taken aback by his behaviour. 'Hey, come here.' She stretched her arms out and after an internal debate Hiro sank down into her arms, hugging her way too gently for it to be normal Hiro behaviour. The younger teen was trying to disguise the fact that he was crying, and he wasn't very good at it. Rena saw Tadashi watching from the doorway, his face exhausted yet full of concern. She shot him a questioning look but he simply shrugged.

'I'll, uhh..' He scratched the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. He took a half-step backwards and jerked this thumb over his shoulder. Rena nodded and he closed the door behind him to give them some privacy.

'Hey!' She said again, only just managing to pull the sobbing kid off her. Ashamed of his tears, he sat down in a chair next to the bed and tried to wipe them away quickly. 'What's wrong? Come on, I'm okay! I feel fine, absolutely great in fact!' This was a lie. Truth be told, she felt like shit. But she couldn't reveal this to him, she didn't want to make whatever he was going through ten times worse. Her gut clenched as she looked at her snivelling little brother, half guilty that she'd done that to him and half utterly depressed about it.

'You promised!' He choked out, 'when Tadashi almost died you promised that you'd stay! You promised that you'd stay and you wouldn't die!'

Rena simply stared at him. What the hell was he going on about? 'But... but I am alive. I'm fine?'

'Yeah but you did die!'

He said it so matter of factly that for a second she thought he was joking. Then an awkward moment of silence passed and it occurred to her suddenly that he was being dead serious. 'No... no I didn't.' She said numbly.

Hiro shook his head. 'No you did.. you definitely did. I heard it, and so did Tadashi. He uh, he didn't take it very well truth be told. But the fact still remained that you broke your promise!'

Rena softened, realising then just how... well... young Hiro was. In that second she saw the tiny child that had grown up being picked on and would come home to her crying and snivelling about school. 'I'm sorry. I... I had no idea that happened. I don't know what's happened. Like, at all. But the fact remains that I'm still here now, yeah? I'm still alive, and clearly the promise wasn't broken because here I am! I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm not leaving either of you. You think Tadashi would be able to handle living without me, without either of us anyway? Nah, I hate to break it to you but I'm not letting anything take me down.'

As bleak as that conversation was, she found a silver lining in that she now knew what that pain in her chest was. Clearly it had come from the doctors trying to bring her back to life. The prospect of her dying should have terrified her, or made her want to get outside and seize life's opportunities. But no, all she wanted to do was curl up and go back to sleep and escape the pain. The morphine was beginning to do its work and she was beginning to feel a lot more tired. She lay back down and Tadashi came into the room, talking about something that she wasn't listening to. Her burning desire to know why she was there had diminished for now and she felt her eyelids slipping. She felt Tadashi squeeze her hand and mutter something but she didn't hear.

'Mmm. Going to sleep.' She murmured softly before letting herself escape once more.


	9. Chapter 9

Jason Fournier stared at the kid sat in front of him. Bright eyed and tiny, as soon as the child sat down he knew he'd destroy him. He'd beaten many older, more experienced fighters before. He was the champion; no one dared to challenge him unless they were an experienced fighter. Fournier had spent years building and developing his robot until it was the best in the game. He had the ultimate signature moves, and they hadn't failed him yet.

'This is my first fight,' the kid said shakily, as though he'd only just realised what he'd done. 'go easy on me.'

Fournier chuckled maliciously. 'No chance. Beat it kid, before I crush you.'

To his surprise, the dark-haired teen remained firmly where he was sat. 'I have money to play!' He lifted his hand into the light and Jason could see a thick wad of notes clutched in his tiny fist. He grinned evilly.

'Alright then squirt. If you're prepared to loose, then on your head be it.'

He nodded to his brother, Matthew Fournier. Matthew stepped forwards and grabbed the cash from the kid, shoving it into a red box balanced on a table to the left of the ring. Jason handed him a roll of cash and watched his brother drop it in next to it. Jason and Matthew Fournier were pros. Their names were feared by every botfighter in town, everyone knew who they were. Everyone knew that they always, always came out on top. Jason wasn't ever worried by his competitors, even the biggest, scariest, meanest looking guys simply made him laugh. Weaklings, all of them.

Matthew stepped forwards with an old, tattered umbrella.

'3.'

The audience jeered at the kid as he placed his tiny bot in front of him. Jason let out a howl of laughter at the pathetic little thing, with its yellow smiley face plastered across the front.

'2.'

He cracked his knuckles menacingly and the kid swallowed nervously, straightening out in an attempt to look more intimidating than he actually was. Jason rolled his eyes; this was going to be easy.

'1.'

Jason could navigate his controller with his eyes shut. His gaze remained firmly on the fight at hand instead of switching back and forth between bots and remote. His bot lunged forwards, about to slice the pathetic little robot in half when suddenly it darted out of the way and zoomed to the other side of the ring. Jason blinked. He hadn't expected that one; normally this quick move finished off beginners before they even had chance to do anything. But no matter, this fight was still under his control. There was no way he was loosing to a first time fighter who hadn't even started puberty yet. His robot dodged to the side and hit the smaller robot, sending it skidding across the ring. He smiled triumphantly - time to move in for the kill. He clicked the remote and his robot loomed over the smaller bot. He paused, deciding to bask in the glory. The crowd cheered as his robot brought his arm down ready to slice this child's invention in half when-

'No, no. I can't allow that, I'm afraid.' The kid said smugly. Jason stared at him in disbelief and these few seconds cost him dearly. The kid grinned toothily at him and pulled on either sides of the remote, extending it to at least half its size. Jason pulled his robot back as the tiny smiley face changed to one that was red and angry, failing to hide the shock of the kid's sudden attack. He managed to make his robot dive out of the way just in time, but his reflexes weren't fast enough to last much longer. For the first time in a long time, his confidence wavered and the crowd began to jeer. Not at his competitor, but at him.

He was loosing. He knew he was. The kid looked bored as he eloquently swiped and sliced at Jason's carefully crafted bot. People were laughing at him and it was extremely off putting. So off putting, in fact, that he slipped for just a second. His thumb slid off the button and in the second it took for him to get a proper grip of his controller the child had managed to rip one of the arms of his bot completely off. Unbalanced, he watched as his beautiful creation slipped and fell to the side. The kid's bot swooped down on his fallen robot and disassembled, the parts surrounding Jason's bot and squeezing the parts off it one by one. With a shower of sparks, he was finished.

Jason couldn't believe it. He'd... he'd lost. In over his five years of botfighting, he'd never suffered a loss so rapid and so embarrassing. The crowd was openly laughing at him. The sound filled the older man with rage. There was no way this child was going to get away with embarrassing him, Jason Fournier, the champion of all botfighting, the most feared name in the entire botfighting scene.

'Oh dear. Listen, I'm just as shocked as you are. I've never even fought before, that must be SO embarrassing for you.'

Jason clenched his fist. Was this teen, this meagre CHILD, making fun of HIM? he rose to his feet, kicking the discarded pieces of his creation aside. The kid reached for the money but Jason shoved him. Hard. The kid went sprawling to the ground, and Jason towered over him. The crowd seemed to catch onto what was happening pretty quick and began to disperse, people running in all directions in order to escape the scene.

'Get Marissa.' He spat in the direction of a blonde haired boy attempting to hide himself away in the corner. The boy stepped forward and pushed his glasses up his nose, trying to seem more confident than he felt.

'Right away Sir.' He said, before turning quickly and pushing open the door to one of the many buildings around them.

The raven-haired teen tried to sit up, but Jason kicked him roughly in the chest. He fell back on the ground and he pressed his boot to the kid's chest, not bothering to be careful about it.

'HEY! Let me up! I won, let me have my winnings!' The kid yelled, squirming under his foot. Jason didn't budge.

The blonde haired boy returned with a strikingly beautiful woman. She sauntered casually over to Jason and handed him an elegant blade in one beautiful hand. Jason took it, smiling warmly at the woman. Marissa - the only woman he had ever loved. She planted a kiss on his cheek and winked, before turning to his brother and giving him a slightly less stunning version of the knife.

Jason took his foot off the kid's chest and seized a fistful of his hoodie, pulling him back onto his feet. All arrogance that the kid had previously displayed had vanished, only to be replaced with terror. 'You're about to learn a very valuable lesson about what happens when someone tries to embarrass me. It. Doesn't. End. Well.' He hissed, eyes alight with malice.

'C... come on! Put... put the knife down. Let's talk about this like civilised people!'

Jason laughed. 'No... I think I'd rather do this instead.'

He pressed the cold metal to his neck, pressing down gently. The knife was so sharp that even the slightest touch brought beads of blood to the surface of the child's skin.

'I'll let you have the winnings!' He whimpered, so quietly that Jason could scarcely hear him.

'What do you say, dearest brother of mine?' He purred. Matthew stepped forwards, a look of pure delight on his face as he realised what was about to go down. He always was the more ruthless out of the two, Jason was the more cunning one. 'Shall we kill him now? Or would you like to play with the food before we eat it?'

The kid's eyes widened in a panic, but he could barely move. The slightest wrong move and his neck would be slit. His doe-like eyes darted around the small alleyway and rested on the blonde haired boy. Jason turned his head just in time to see him give a small shake of the head and retreat back to the shadows. 'Cain, would you like to come and have a play?'

He chuckled at Caine's terrified expression. 'Uhhh... no. I'll uh.. I'll leave it to you, Sir.'

Jason chuckled. 'I see we still have much to teach you. No matter, I'll take plenty of pleasure in doing this myself. It's been a while since I've spilt some blood.'

He removed his arm and as his grip lessened on his hoodie, the teen neatly slipped it off and fell to the floor with a thud. Before Jason had even registered what was happening, he had stood and was already running away from them, leaving the man with the hoodie clutched in his fist.

'GET HIM!' He roared, not even bothering to let go of the hoodie before running after the teen. Marissa, Matthew and Caine were hot on his heels. Caine managed to sprint ahead and seize the kid by the back of his hoodie. The younger teenager managed to swing around and punch him squarely in the nose, curing loudly as he did so. Caine roared in agony and Jason could hear the crack of his nose breaking. Marissa stepped forwards and pinned both arms behind his back, allowing Caine to step back in order to stem the bloodflow.

Jason and Matthew Fournier advanced on the raven-haired boy menacingly, brandishing their weapons. 'So we've a slippery one here!' Matthew spat, his face twisted with rage. 'Think you're smart do you?'

'No, I just think you're stupid. AH!' The kid yelled back at him, earning a sharp blow to the back by Marissa's knee. Jason smiled in satisfaction as he crumpled. The woman pulled him back up to his feet.

'Shall we just kill him now, brother of mine?' Matthew grunted.

Jason considered. 'Hmm, shall we let the victim decide?'

The kid raised his head and stared at him, his eyes full of fury. 'I will not comply. You cowardly piece of SHIT.'

Jason stiffened. No one called HIM a coward. 'Okay, so he seems to have gone for the slow option. Fine with me.'

He stood back and took aim. He wasn't going to get this slimy kid's blood on his hands. If he aimed well enough, he'd hit a place that would not kill him but instead put him under immense pain. Good. That would teach the bastard.

The shoulder. Yes, perfect. He squinted, pointing his knife exactly where he wanted it to go. He wouldn't miss. Jason Fournier never missed. The knife went spinning through the air, heading directly towards his target.

The teenager knew what that evil man was about to do. In his mind, he calculated the angle and location at which he was going to throw it. If he timed it right, he would be able to miss the blade completely. At just the right time, he twisted sharply. The sharp metal grazed his arm and buried itself in the woman holding him.

Jason stared in horror was the kid dodged the knife. The blade whizzed right past him and buried itself deep into Marissa's chest.

Her mouth opened in a perfect O of of surprise. It was almost comical. Her grip weakened on the teenager's t-shirt and he pulled away from her, dropping to the ground and scrambling away before a distracted Caine could grab him. Marissa crumpled like a sack of potatoes and Jason rushed forwards to catch her. He bundled up the hoodie he was still holding and pressed it to her chest, but deep down he knew it was no good.

'Marissa.' He whispered, 'please, stay with me.'

'Honey...' she whispered in her gentle voice, eyes becoming duller by the second, 'I.. I love you.'

'I love you too. Please, Marissa. For me.'

'There's something... there's something I have to tell you. Before I go.' She said softly. Jason grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight, trying to ignore how cold it was. 'I am... I'm pregnant.'

'No! No! Stay, please. Stay!' Jason pleaded, his eyes tearing up for the first time in years. Marissa was the only one that really knew him. The only one that wasn't afraid of him. The only one that made his villainous life worth it. And a baby? He didn't know whether the idea disgusted him or fascinated him, but now he'd never even get to find out. The hoodie was now almost completely red, there wasn't even enough time to call an ambulance.

'I'll kill him. I will. I won't rest until I've done it, I promise.'

Marissa smiled. 'Good. Give him... give him hell from me.'

And with that, her grip slackened and her eyes went dull. Jason gently removed the blade and tossed it to the side, not wanting to look at it. He gently let go of his love's hand and closed her eyes. She could just be sleeping.

In that moment, all tender feeling that he had felt had gone. His heart had been hardened by loss already, but this was the tip of the iceberg. He didn't know who that wretched kid was, but he was going to make his life so miserable he'd beg for Jason to kill him. His face twisted with rage and he let out a roar of agony. That was it. He would never love anyone again, he was certain of that.

His hand groped for the hoodie, wet with Marissa's blood. He slung it away from her and as he did so a plastic card clattered out of the pocket. He seized it and scoffed. A library card? Christ, this kid was beyond pathetic.

But something made him stop. A name was scrawled on in biro, just neat enough that his eyes could make it out.

Hiro Hamada.

He let out a manic laugh. 'I know who we need to kill.'  
\------------------------------------------------  
Hiro awoke in a cold sweat, panting as though he really had just run away from a gang of criminals. His hand automatically reached up to his neck, fingers tracing the thin scar that the lunatic had left on him. It was so small it was hardly noticeable, but he knew it was there. Every night, he went back to that alleyway. Every time he closed his eyes he could hear the sound of the knife finding a home in that pretty woman's chest. He could hear the agonised screaming of the man kneeling in her blood as he fled. He snatched his hand away from the scar and pressed his palms to his eyes, rubbing until he could see stars. He took in a long breath and swallowed the bile rising in his throat. Briefly, he debated about waking Tadashi. He very quickly decided against this though, he swore when it happened that he would never speak of it. To anyone.

Hiro had gone back to botfighting the night after the fire. It provided a welcome distraction from everything going on and he loved it. He swore to himself that he would stop as soon as term started but decided that he wanted to continue botfighting. The beginning of term was great at first but the teen soon became bored. Instead of going over to friend's houses to complete projects like he said he was doing he instead snuck off to botfight. He loved it, the only time he truly felt alive was when he was in the midst of a fight, adrenaline coursing through his veins and the certainty that he would win yet another fight. The incident with Marissa should have put him off completely, but despite this happening at the beginning of summer he still went back for more. It was like an addiction, he couldn't help it.

He looked over at the clock on the table and read the time. It was just gone 4AM. Instead of going back to sleep, he slipped quietly out of bed and down to the stairs. He flicked the light on in the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked a mess. His hair was sticking up more than usual and there were large bags under his eyes. Tadashi looked the same, though. Both Hiro and Tadashi had been spending all their free time at the hospital. Between the endless amounts of school work and visiting his older sister, Hiro found that there wasn't much time for fickle things such as sleep.

Rena had overdosed on a chemical with a name so long Hiro hadn't bothered to memorise it. At first, he doctors thought she'd tried to kill herself and for a terrifying few minutes Hiro thought she had as well. But Rena had shouted them down within seconds of them suggesting it. In an extremely Rena like-way, she yelled that it was an insult to her intelligence and that if she was going to kill herself she would have done it quickly. So that was that. The doctors put it down to an innocent mistake that had occurred in the lab. Tadashi didn't say it, but Hiro knew he was suspicious. The youngest Hamada didn't know what to think, only that he was glad that Rena was alive. He didn't like to think about what would have happened to their tiny family if she had really died. Going by Tadashi's immediate reaction at the hospital, it would be devastating for all of them.

He rubbed his eyes and his reflection did the same. His head hurt and his eyelids were heavy. Hiro decided that everything he was thinking about could be worried about in the morning. He took a deep breath. Yeah. He was fine. These criminals weren't after him and his family was alive and he was alive and nothing was going to happen. So he didn't need to tell Tadashi that he had gone botfighting again and anger him or worry him even more than he already was. Tadashi didn't need that, he was wearing himself thin enough as it was.

'Everything will be okay.' He whispered to the mirror, smiling weakly. He turned the light off and slipped quietly back into bed.

Everything will be okay.

Oh, how wrong he was.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm not great with chapter notes, so apologies for that. I hope you're enjoying the story and you love Rena as much as I do :')   
> Comments and kudos etc are so greatly appreciated - huuuuuuuge thank you to everyone who has left them so far! This honestly means the world.  
> This fic is long - I'm up to 24 chapters so far and I've not yet finished. The end is in sight though :)  
> That's enough of me. Enjoy!!!

'Is it definitely him?'

'Yes Sir. I saw him at the hospital, it was him. We targeted the right person all right.'

Jason smiled, but it was a cold, cruel smile that only emphasised the emptiness in his eyes. 'Good. Fetch me my brother, will you?'

The teenager nodded and scurried out of the room. Jason sat and waited, twirling an elegant dagger between his fingers and thinking about all of his evil plans.

'Brother!' He exclaimed, spreading his arms out in a welcoming gesture as the teen returned with Matthew Fournier towering over him. 'Are you ready for phase two?'

Matthew cracked his knuckles threateningly. 'Always ready to spill some blood.'

'Excellent.' Jason extracted a white envelope from his jacket and placed it down on the desk in front of him. He pushed it forwards slowly with two fingers and Matthew snatched it up greedily. 'There's the boy's address. You know what needs to be done now.'

Matthew nodded solemnly. 'When?'

'Tomorrow. 5pm.'

'Noted.' And with that, he spun on his heel and left. The heavy door swung shut and the sounds of him tearing into the envelope could be heard through the thin walls.

Jason turned his attention back to the kid in front of him. He beckoned him forward with a finger and the blonde haired boy swallowed nervously. 'I need you to do something for me, boy.'

'Y...yes sir?'

'I need you to create a distraction. The girl can't find out you were the one that poisoned her and she can't find out you have a connection to what is going to happen tomorrow. It would ruin everything.'

'O...okay. Um, what are you doing tomorrow?'

Jason's face broke into a cruel, evil grin. 'Finally getting my revenge.'  
\---------------------------------  
'HA! You owe me 1500 now!' Rena crowed, pointing at her younger brother. Hiro sighed over dramatically and rifled through his stack of money.

'That's it, I'm out.' He said reluctantly.

'What do I always say? I'm the master of Monopoly!'

Hiro rolled his eyes. 'Okay, calm it down. I'm only going easy on you cause you're sick.'

'Yeah, whatever you have to tell yourself.'

Rena sat back and grinned cheekily. Her hospital bed was covered in tiny plastic Monopoly houses and cards, both of her brothers were sat on either side of the bed playing with her.

'Okay, calm down children.' Tadashi said, laughing at the pair of them. 'My turn.'

Hiro sat back and started playing on his phone, leaving his older siblings to finish the game. After an intense twenty minutes, Tadashi had finally gone bankrupt and left Rena victorious.

'I am literally unbeatable.' She gloated happily. 'That's it. I've peaked! I am the greatest Monopoly player of all time! I- OW! Rude.' Hiro had launched his game piece at her at the same time Tadashi threw a dice. 'Be nice, I'm the one in hospital!'

'In case you haven't realised, we're all in hospital.' Tadashi added, scooping up the money and placing it carefully back into the box.

'Yeah... well... alright shut up.' Rena replied, grinning. She sat back in her bed as Tadashi cleared away the rest of the pieces, not even bothering to ask if he wanted help because she knew his answer already. She shut her eyes and winced as a random shoot of pain ricocheted off her bones, sending a wave of agony across her body. This was an occurance that was only becoming all the more common. Still, this didn't mean she was in any way used to it.

'You okay?' Tadashi asked, brown eyes wide with concern.

She waved him off. 'Yeah, fine.'

Truth be told, she was exhausted and in pain. But this was one of the rare nights that they'd actually just chilled out and had fun together, and Rena had no intention of ruining it just yet. Ever since she'd come to a week ago, her life had been full of tests and questioning and tearful visits and 'what ifs' and medication and doctors. She had missed simply hanging out without having to think about the fact that she'd accidentally managed to overdose on some random substance that she couldn't remember the name of. After many tests, the doctors had come to the conclusion that she'd suffered from some kind of chemical poisoning as a result of an overdose from a deadly substance, causing confusion, nausea, blackouts and eventually cardiac arrest. At first, they thought it was a suicide attempt. However, after a very tearful interaction with her older brother and numerous accounts of the teen yelling at the doctors, they'd come to the conclusion that it was nothing more than an accident. Rena got the feeling that Tadashi wasn't convinced though. He'd only left her side once or twice, the rest of the time he had been ridiculously overprotective of his little sister, even by his crazy standards. Rena appreciated the thought, but was beginning to become a little tired by his constant worrying and stressing. But hey, that was Tadashi.

'I can't believe you won Monopoly again.' Hiro said, shaking his head in annoyance. 'I calculated the exact way to throw the dice to where I wanted to go, AND the streets I was gonna buy, and yet you still won?!'

Rena's face split into a grin. 'You may be a tiny genius, but you're no match for my absolute skill. Also, I got dark blue. You know dark blue is the best street in order to rake in the most cash.'

Hiro nodded. 'True. True.'

Tadashi grinned. 'It's just a game! Do you really need to take it so seriously?'

Rena placed a hand over her heart and acted as though she'd been wounded. 'OFFENDED. It's never "just a game" bro, you know this.'

'Okay! I take it back!'

'Good. As you should.'

Rena reaches for a glass of water, the cannula in her hand tugging uncomfortably as she did so. It was difficult to resist the temptation to yank it out completely. 'Did I miss anything at school?'

Tadashi shrugged. 'I mean, I was only there for one day. Not much happened, although Gogo's bike ran into Caine and he spilt coffee all over himself. That was pretty funny.'

Rena grinned at the thought of Caine flying across the room because of Gogo. Sure, she was fond of the guy but she had to admit that he did need a little bit of sense knocking into him. 'Wish I could've seen that.'

Hiro frowned at them. 'Uhh, who's Caine?'

Rena and Tadashi turned to look at him in surprise. 'You don't know who Caine is?' Tadashi asked.

The younger Hamada shook his head. 'No? Why, should I? Is he not just someone in your year or something?'

'Nah, he's like Abigail. You know, someone employed by Granville to help us all out. Even though he's a bit useless, I don't know why she doesn't just save her money and not hire him in the first place.'

Tadashi grinned. 'You sure? I heard from Gogo that you two were pretty close...'

Rena stiffened. 'Absolutely not. Thought you were scared of him dating me anyway?'

Tadashi shrugged. 'I wouldn't say scared.'

Rena rolled her eyes. 'Yeah. Whatever. Anyway it doesn't matter because there is no way in hell I am ever getting with him. Nope, none at all.' She shivered, even the idea of dating Caine was repulsive.

Hiro still looked confused. 'How is it that I've never met this guy?

Rena shrugged. 'I'm sure you will soon. You've probably seen him around, you just haven't met him properly yet. Think yourself lucky really, he's a bit weird.'

'So are you, yet I choose to hang out with you.'

Rena threw the empty paper cup at him. It bounced off his head and hit the wall. 'Aren't you supposed to treat people on their death bed nicely?'

Both Hiro and Tadashi grimaced at these words, even though she was joking. 'Don't say that.'

'I'll say what I want. Free speech.'

'Just shut up.'

So she did. They sat in silence for a while, but Rena didn't mind. Her head was beginning to ache again, a side effect of either the poisoning or the medication. Or both. Rena glanced at Tadashi, who was chewing his nails and staring out the window like he did when he was thinking about something. She felt a rush of affection for him, in the entire week he'd only left her twice. Once to go home and once to go to school to grab the work they both needed to catch up on. He always made sure she was in good company and she appreciated it immensely. Aunt Cass was simply too busy to be there all of the time and Hiro didn't have the patience.

'Penny for your thoughts?' She asked him.

Tadashi jumped slightly, as though he'd only just remembered she was even there. 'Wha?'

'What you thinking about?'

He shrugged. 'Nothing that interesting.'

Rena narrowed her eyes. 'Yeah. Sure.' She replied sarcastically. Tadashi had been off for ages, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't seem to get it out of him.

He shook his head and stood, brushing off his trousers as he did so. 'I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Anyone want anything?'

Both Rena and Hiro shook their heads no, so he left without another word.

Rena rolled her eyes. 'I don't know why he doesn't just use the bathroom that's right there!'' She was in a private room that was essentially an en suite, although the bathroom she got was barely big enough for the shower.

Hiro shrugged. 'He's just weird. I guess you could say the ones down the hall are cleaner maybe? But you're definitely right either way.'

Rena nodded and they sat in silence for a minute. Hiro twisted in his seat until he was practically lying in it, staring at the ceiling. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was.

'Have you noticed anything... off with Tadashi lately?' He said, more to the ceiling than to his older sister.

'Yeah! Definitely. I swear, he's even more annoying now than he's ever been. Not to be mean, but he's always been... what would you call it? Over protective I guess? But especially recently.'

Hiro nodded feverishly, gesturing wildly in the air as he spoke. 'HONESTLY! I keep telling him

that he doesn't need to spend every waking minute here but I swear he never listens to me!'

'Bold of you to assume that he listens to me either. I've insisted that he leaves like, a hundred times already. Not that I don't want him here! But he should go home once or twice.'

Hiro laughed. 'Yeah. He keeps calling me in the middle of class, and texting as well. It's constant, all "are you okay?" "where are you?" he KNOWS I'm in class, what is he thinking?'

Rena straightened out slightly, 'wait? he does?'

Hiro nodded, eyebrows knitting together. 'Yeah! It's like... it's like I'm 10 or something!'

Rena exhaled. The last time Tadashi had done that to Hiro was in high school, after everything that had happened. It was like Tadashi was terrified he was going to find Hiro in the bathroom again unless he constantly made sure his little brother was okay. She couldn't be sure, but the pieces were slowly starting to come together. Was it getting bad again? Was she really that oblivious? Or was she just overthinking things? Rena couldn't stand not knowing. Tadashi always told her everything! What was he keeping from her? 'Huh. Weird.'

Before she could say anything else, Tadashi entered the room again. 'Rena I just spoke to a doctor outside, they want to do more tests.' He turned to Hiro before adding, 'and they want us both to leave.'

Rena felt all peace quickly evaporate and an iron fist tightened around her chest. More than anything, she hated the constant questioning and tests and treatments they put her under. She just wanted to be left alone! Unfortunately, no one seemed to be getting that memo. 'Oh... okay.'

Tadashi caught a look at her expression and gave her a smile. 'I'll come back later. Honey Lemon said on the group chat everyone else is planning to visit, and Fred's bringing pizza.'

The fist loosened slightly at the thought of seeing all her friends together again. 'Okay. Okay I'll see you later then.'

A couple of hours later, the middle Hamada was reading a book alone in her empty hospital room. She was accompanied only by the beeping of the machines keeping her alive, which was both weirdly calming and anxiety inducing. Her friends were coming over soon, she knew that. But it still didn't stop her from checking her phone every ten seconds to see if they were on their way.

She turned the page and sighed softly, finally starting to get lost within the story. In fact, she was so invested that she almost didn't notice the knocking on the door.

'Uhh, anyone in?'

Rena looked up in surprise, and almost dropped her book when saw who was standing there. The person pushed their glasses up their nose amen gave her a nervous smile, shoving his hands deep inside his pockets.

'Wh... Caine! Hi!' She said, smiling broadly at him. She folded the page and tossed the book onto the table. 'Come, sit! What are you doing here?'

'Well... I heard from your friends that you were in hospital and I wanted to see if you were okay. How are you doing? What happened?'

'Well,' she's hesitated, not quite sure whether or not to tell him the entire story. 'To be honest, I don't really know. Everything's little fuzzy, but I seem to have accidentally ingested some kind of substance... a chemical or something from the lab. I've no idea how it happened, and neither do the doctors. But.. here I am I guess.'

Caine's eyes widened in shock. 'Wow, really? At SFIT? Surely they're looking into it or something?'

Rena shrugged. 'I think there's an investigation being opened but I've told them not to bother. It was probably down to my own stupidity rather than anything else to be honest.'

He nodded thoughtfully. 'I can see your point. I'm glad you're okay though.'

'Thanks.' Rena had no intention upon telling him that she had actually been legally dead. 'How's things going at SFIT?'

He lent back in his seat. 'Oh, you know. Same as always. I've missed our little conversations in the lab though.'

'Yeah, me too.' She debated asking him about Hiro, if he'd ever met him or not. It wasn't like Hiro to forget anything, but it seemed weird that they went to the same school yet had never even talked to each other. But, as always, Caine started talking so much when could hardly get a word in edgeways.

He started on an animated rant about a horrible customer he'd encountered at the pancake place, and Rena was more than happy to sit back and let him talk, occasionally jumping in with nods and certain comments. It was a nice change to be in someone's company without the expectation of actively joining in with the conversation.

'... and then this woman tells me she's not paying for it AND LITERALLY WALKS OUT? My manager and I were literally chasing her across the parking lot!'

'Seriously? All that because the scoop of ice cream was the wrong flavour?'

'Yeah!'

Rena laughed. 'Man, that sounds like a nightmare. Did I ever tell you about that guy who threw his plate at the wall because his eggs weren't done right?'

'No way?! He sounds mental.'

'To be honest I reckon he was at least a little deranged. I had to clean it up and all! When I say I was FUMING-'

She was interrupted by her phone buzzing. Caine's buzzed at the same time Rena reached for hers. She glanced at the notification from the local news app, realising Caine must have the same app as well.

'Holy shit!' She said, eyes wide as she read the notification. 'An armed robbery?! That's so crazy!'

She glanced at Caine, his face had gone purely white. 'Rena... read the article.'

'Um, okay?' She swiped the notification and was met with an alarming headline.

BREAKING NEWS: ARMED ROBBERY AT SMALL LOCAL CAFE

She quickly scanned then article. Police officers at the scene, the criminal had escaped and wasn't armed and dangerous, held at gunpoint, four injuries...

Then she read something that made her clap her hand to her mouth to muffle her scream.

The Lucky Cat Cafe. Her home, her family had been held at gunpoint.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooooahhh plot twist! I know it's a little unrealistic but I also don't care!!!!

Rena stared at the phone screen in shock, the words swimming, and her heart racing. A million thoughts flashed through her head all at once; who got injured? Was her family okay? Why would someone want to rob a cafe? Was the cafe destroyed? Was Aunt Cass dead? Was Tadashi dead? Was Hiro dead?

'Rena! RENA!'

Caine waved his hand in front of her face and she realised he was talking to her. 'Wh... what did you say?'

'That's where you live, isn't it?'

She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. 'Yeah... I... Oh god...'

He leaned over and wrapped his arms around her tightly. She hugged him back, embarrassed she was crying in front of him. They pulled apart and she grabbed her phone, unlocking it and calling her Aunt Cass. The phone rang, and rang, and rang. Eventually, it reached Cass's voicemail and Rena dropped it onto the bed. She knew that would probably happen yet the disappointment was still crushing.

Adrenaline was coursing through her body and in an instant, she made up her mind. 'Give me your hoodie.'

'What?' Caine replied, surprised at Rena's sudden change in demeanor.

'I have to get there. I can't... I can't just sit here not knowing what's happened. Please, help me.' She pleaded.

Caine hesitated. 'Rena... no. It's dangerous, you're still here for a reason. They'll notice you're gone, you'll get in trouble-'

'I know. I know, and I don't care. They're my family Caine, the only family I have left. Please.'

He paused, thinking. Then, he pulled his hoodie off and tossed it onto the bed. 'Fine. But only because I know there will be doctors at the scene.'

Rena grinned at him despite her fear. 'Thank you, I owe you one.'

'Too right you do! What else do you need me to do?'

'I need a distraction.'

Caine blanched at her words, but before Rena could decipher the meaning of his sudden dark expression his face was full of determination and he nodded. 'Okay. I can do that.'

Rena flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. 'You have no idea how much this means to me.'

Caine stood and stumbled slightly, grinning stupidly. Red was slowly creeping up his face towards his ears but he turned and left before Rena noticed. As soon as he left, the magnitude of the situation hit her properly. Here she was messing around when someone she loved could be dead.

'Hold yourself together.' She muttered to herself, trying her best to steady the tremble in her hands. She glanced at the wires hooking her up to the machines and felt her first feeling of doubt. She knew full well that she shouldn't do it; that it was dangerous. This still didn't stop her from hooking her pinkie around the thin wire and yanking. She gasped quietly as the cannula was pulled out of her hand before dropping it onto the bed and wiping away the tiny spot of blood. She pulled the others out in quick succession, her heart picking up the pace as she began to fully comprehend the magnitude of what she was doing. Rena kept her nerve though, the adrenaline was enough to keep her from backing out straight away.

It took her a few minutes to be able to stand. She hadn't technically gotten permission to be up and walking yet, and she understood why when she stood up and received a wave of dizziness so intense she had to sit back down again. After it passed, she slowly got to her feet and tried her best to ignore the black spots in her vision and the trembling across her entire body. She seized Caine's hoodie and pulled it over her head, trying her best to disguise the hospital gown. Tadashi had brought her a small bag of clothes, and after a couple of minutes of clumsily fumbling with the buttons, she had pulled on a pair of jeans and stuffed her feet into a pair of slightly too small trainers. Yanking the hood down over her curls, she slipped out into the corridor and made her way to the lift, leaning on the wall for support.

Rena punched the button and slunk into the elevator, breathing a sigh of relief as she slid down the wall. Thankfully, the corridor had been empty and she made a mental note to thank Caine profusely for whatever distraction he'd created. She ran a hand through her hair and tried not to think about what scene awaited her at home.

(Half an hour earlier)

'Hey, honey!' Cass wrapped her oldest nephew in a bone-crushing hug, 'how are things? Are you okay? Need anything at all?'

Tadashi smiled and brushed off his blazer. 'Easy on the flour Aunt Cass! And yeah, I'm good. We're all good.'

'Sorry! I'm making cookies! Would you like to take some? Rena mentioned how much she was missing my cooking.' She tried to disguise it, but Tadashi could easily hear the shake in her voice as she said it.

'Yeah, I think she'd love that.' He said, smiling down on his Aunt's shorter frame. She nodded before returning back to her baking, humming to herself as she mixed the dry ingredients.

'Where's Hiro?' She asked with her back to him.

'He's in the front, talking to Iris about fall out boy or something.'

'Ah, I see. You going back to the hospital

later?'

'Mhmm, Fred and everyone are stopping by for pizza and stuff. They're just outside waiting. You should come, Rena missed you.'

Cass's shoulders slumped. 'I know! I will try, I miss her too. I've just been so busy! Ever since I started the two for one deal customers have almost doubled and I've got book club to organise and poetry night to reschedule and-'

'Hey.' Tadashi placed a hand on her shoulder, realising just how tired his Aunt was looking recently. 'You should give yourself a break.'

Cass softened. 'I will honey. Soon, I promise. Can you do me a favour and take that tray of cookies over there out front? Iris told me a bit ago that we needed some more and I've just been waiting for them to cool.'

'Sure!' He walked over to the tray of chocolate chip cookies and picked it up, careful not to drop any. He'd dropped an entire tray once and definitely wasn't eager to re-live the terrible experience.

He kicked the kitchen door open and made his way carefully over to the counter. The cafe wasn't particularly busy, a few customers were dotted about but it was pretty quiet. Iris was leaning on the counter, her chin propped up with her hand as she was chatting animatedly to Hiro. The latter was sitting on a bar stool with a glass of water in hand, kicking his legs back and forth. Honey Lemon was sat next to him, immersed in her phone. Gogo was sat on the counter. Wasabi and Fred were talking a little off to the side, Fred had a stack of pizza boxes in his arms and looked very excited about it.

'... So yeah, that's why I think folie is the superior fall out boy album. It's literally the best one! No debate at all.'

'Okay, you make a fair point.' Hiro rebutted confidently, 'but infinity on high has thnks fr th mmrs and that is an iconic tune, name one song on folie that has a song HALF as good!'

Gogo gave a cry of outrage. 'Everything you just said is wildly incorrect.'

'It's about the whole album as a whole! Besides, headfirst slide into Cooperstown on a bad bet is way better! You're just lacking taste!' Iris added.

'What are we talking about?' Tadashi asked, setting the cookies down on the counter.

'Hey Tadashi!' Iris had been working at the cafe for a year, she was a little older than Tadashi but she didn't act like it. The young woman was covered head to toe in tattoos and her face was covered in a hundred different piercings. Tadashi had thought she was pretty intimidating when he first met her but after a while realised she was one of the nicest people he'd ever met. 'We're having a very important debate on the best fall out boy album. Your brother here has no taste and believes it's infinity on high, whilst I'm a firm believer in folie a duex supremacy. Gogo is correct and believes in the better album, but Fred said he liked infinity more. You're the deciding vote.'

'...errrr...' Tadashi didn't have the heart to tell her that he hadn't listened to either album for a very long time. 'I uh... which is the album with sugar we're goin' down? I like that one.'

Hiro buried his head in his hands and groaned. 'Bro, that's not... never mind.'

Gogo rolled her eyes. 'Why are we surprised? Mate, what's your favourite genre? Country or something?'

Iris laughed. 'Okay, looks like you don't get a say. Guess we'll have to ask Rena or something another time.'

Hiro nodded. 'Yeah! Rena has good taste in music.' He shot Tadashi a glare. Tadashi rolled his eyes at him.

'Whatever. Hey, there's a customer coming in.'

Iris stepped past the eldest Hamada to serve the man that had just walked in. He was tall and scary looking. He had a big scar running down his face, a huge black coat on, and a massive, black bowler hat that concealed most of his face.

'What's his deal?' Hiro sniggered quietly, making sure that the man didn't overhear.

Tadashi shrugged. 'I don't know. It's weird though. It's boiling outside!'

'What you tryna say? Too hot for black?' Gogo said, 'rude.'

Hiro laughed. 'No! But... he's wearing a trench coat!'

As he said this, two other men entered the cafe. All eyes turned to stare at them as they silently made their way past the metal tables, flanking the first guy that walked in.

Iris seemed to be the only person in the building that didn't seem phased. 'Hi! Good afternoon, and welcome to The Lucky Cat Cafe. How can I help?'

Then, a lot of things happened at once.

The man at the front lifted his bowler hat slightly. Hiro craned his neck to get a glimpse and dropped his glass of water on the floor. It smashed, sending water and glass cascading all over the freshly mopped cafe floor. Honey Lemon jumped dropped her phone onto the counter. A customer yelped at the noise, someone else shouted a loud 'Woah!' and Hiro jumped out of his seat, hands shaking uncontrollably.

Before Tadashi could even move, the two men whipped something out of their coats in one synchronized, fluid motion.

'Hey... hold on...' Iris gasped, stepping backward as she caught a glimpse of what they were holding.

A customer screamed. Someone else dropped another glass. Tadashi vaulted over the counter and gripped Hiro's wrist. Gogo and Honey Lemon scrambled out the way and Tadashi moved in front, trying his best to look intimidating and protect his friends. The man in front looked over at them and grinned wickedly before drawing out an elegant looking, scarily sharp blade. 'Everyone quiet. No one move, no one speak. Do exactly as I say.'

Tadashi froze, his heart leaping in his throat. Those two men... they were holding guns. And they were looking right at him.

'What do you want?' He asked boldly. The adrenaline was making him sound a hell of a lot more confident then he actually felt. He squeezed Hiro's wrist tighter, but Hiro didn't seem to notice. He was gazing at the man with a mingled look of shock, utter despair and fear.

The man turned to stare at him and Tadashi swallowed nervously, suddenly regretting his outburst.

'What do I want? Wouldn't you like to know, boyo?' He slammed his fist into Tadashi's face, sending him staggering backward with a cry of pain. He let go of Hiro's wrist and pulled himself up using the counter beside him, trying his best to wipe away the blood as he did so. Iris moved towards him at the same time Hiro did, which was a mistake. The man on the right aimed his gun and shot at the glass counters displaying the cookies, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. The guy on the left aimed at the lights above, shooting and plunging them into semi-darkness. Glass rained down, and screams shattered the air.

Tadashi yelled and fell to the floor, clamping his hands over his ringing ears. Hiro dived beside him, cursing and pulling shards of glass out of his hands. Honey Lemon squeezed in next to Tadashi and Gogo knelt next to her. Most of the customers had managed to dive under their tables, the only people still standing were the criminals. Fred had dropped the pizzas, he and Wasabi had joined the friends in cowering behind the bar stools.

'What's going on out here?'

Cass had burst through the door at the sound of the gunshots. Tadashi felt a jolt of pure terror when he realised it was her. 'Aunt Cass NO-'

He was silenced by a knife whizzing through the air, embedding itself deep into the wood next to his head. Gingerly, he reached up to touch his earlobe and his finger came away slick with blood. Honey Lemon whimpered as she caught sight of his new injury. The rest of them stayed silent.

'As I said before, nobody move. This is your final warning before I order my boys here to start shooting at everything and anyone.'

He turned away from them and looked at Cass. Tadashi couldn't see her from where he was crouched, nor could he see Iris hiding on the other side of the counter. He felt around for Hiro's hand and gripped it tightly, not daring to do much else for fear of getting shot.

'You okay?' He murmured, so softly that he wouldn't have been surprised if his brother had never even heard him.

'Never been better.' Hiro replied shakily, 'how are we getting out of this one?'

'Open the cash register! Do it or you know what will happen!'

'I'll be honest, I've no idea.' Tadashi whispered. 'Anyone else got any ideas?'

Gogo lent over and pulled the knife out of the wood. 'No, but if any of you get shot and die I will kill you.'

'Noted.' Tadashi breathed. 'Fred, Wasabi? You guys alright?'

'My fucking pizzas!' Fred hissed angrily.

'Yeah,' Wasabi whispered back, 'cause that's our biggest problem right now!'

Yet another gunshot broke the quiet and Tadashi clamped his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the noise as they fired a line of shots around the perimeter of the room, smashing all the windows.

'THE CASH!' One of the men yelled. Tadashi heard the sound of a fist meeting someone's teeth and cringed. 'I'm getting impatient!'

'Whatever we're doing we need to do it NOW!' Gogo hissed urgently.

'Oh do we have to?!' Honey Lemon whimpered quietly, holding her hands to her ears.

'You're forgetting we're superheroes!' Fred said, eyes shining. 'This is our time!'

'We are not superheroes!'

'No, but we need to do SOMETHING!'

'Shush! Jesus Christ.' Tadashi muttered nervously, fearful for his Aunt and coworker at the mercy of these people standing above them.

'I've a plan.' Hiro whispered, 'I'm gonna distract them, you guys sneak around to the other side of the counter. I'll give you a signal, jump over and tackle them.'

'No? That's the worst plan I've ever heard.'

'It's better than nothing!'

Hiro twisted his arm and was out of Tadashi's grip before he could pull him back. He felt a jolt of fear so severe he almost vomited onto the freshly mopped floor.

'Hey BONEHEADS!' Hiro yelled at the criminals. His entire body was shaking like a leaf but he stood his ground, determination, and fear shining in his eyes. Slowly, they turned to face him.

Then all hell broke loose.  
\-------------------------  
Rena's breathing was getting more labored by the second, and she wasn't even out of the hospital yet.

'Excuse me dearie!' A nurse said cheerfully, brushing past Rena as she scurried past. The teen didn't dare look at anyone for fear that she'd be recognised and sent back up to her room. She was moving so quickly through the entrance hall she might as well have been running.

The automatic doors slid open and she was hit with a blast of chilly autumn air. She took a deep breath, glad to be rid of the stale hospital air she'd grown to get used to. Her head was spinning and it took a second for her to gather her thoughts. She began to walk away from the doors as nonchalantly as possible, stopping to rest on a bench by a kids play park near the back doors.

Rena took a steadying breath, being without medication was beginning to affect her already. She knew it would come but she didn't realise just how much she depended on all the drugs. Her head was throbbing nastily and she felt exhausted despite not having walked very far.

'How the fuck am I gonna get home without a car.' She muttered to herself, kicking at a stone angrily and sending it flying through the air.

She cursed loudly. Every minute she wasted was a minute someone could be dying. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and quickly dialed Tadashi's number. It went straight to the answerphone so she went for the person that came to mind next.

'This is Cass Hamada. Leave a message!'

Rena had to force down the urge to throw her phone as hard and as far away from her as she could. She took a deep breath and ran an unsteady hand between her curls. 'Shit.'

The panic was beginning to properly set in. She was still at the hospital, with no way of getting home to her family and no way of seeing if they were all right. Of course, she could just go back in the hospital and remain safely there and await the dreaded news. However, the idea of waiting that long made her feel sick. There was no way she could wait that long; it could be hours before she even received a shred of news. She wrapped her arms around her body and blinked back the tears that were forming. She began to walk briskly away from the hospital, a plan forming in her head. If she could get away from the hospital then they wouldn't drag her back inside. From there, she'd run to the car park, find a kind-looking woman, and beg her for a lift. Or she could just run to the cafe, but could she make it? Her pulse was accelerating rapidly and she'd barely even gone anywhere. Could she sneak onto a bus? Or maybe-

'Where are you GOING?!'

Rena whipped around too fast. Her head spun and she stumbled forwards. Caine ran towards her and caught her arm before she fell. 'Woah! Careful Hamada, Jesus.'

'I'm fine! Just fine!' Although as she said this she had to swallow down a mouthful of vomit. 'How did you make a distraction?'

He shrugged. 'Just knocked a medical cart over and a couple of nurses around went to clean it up. Really, it wasn't that hard. Although by the time I left they had already caught onto the fact you were gone. We need to get out of here. Now.' He grabbed her wrist and began to pull her towards the multistorey.

'We?!' Rena asked, jogging alongside him despite the fact that every step was causing her pain.

'Well, you're bloody mental if you think I'm leaving you in the city on your own. My car is just on the second floor; traffic is clear, we'll be there in no time.'

Rena couldn't muster the strength to ask him anything else, she simply nodded and followed him, gasping for breath. They reached the elevator and she slid down the wall, hugging her chest and desperately gulping in oxygen.

Caine looked at her in concern. 'Are you sure this is a good idea? I can just go and call you when I get there?'

'No... no.' Rena stood with some difficulty and faced him. 'They're... they're my family. I'm okay, I'm not gonna die.'

Caine didn't look convinced, but he said nothing until he was behind the driver's seat. 'You might wanna pull the hood up again, just in case.'

Rena nodded and pulled it down to cover most of her face. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and wasn't surprised about the lack of text messages displayed on the screen. She went to the news app and refreshed the article but nothing else came up, simply the same information about four injuries, officers only just arrived on the scene, and that the gunmen were still armed and on the loose. Her stomach twisted.

'I know a shortcut to the street behind yours. You can get through the back alley without being seen. We'll literally be five minutes, okay?'

Rena pulled the hood back and nodded, her face set and determined. 'Okay. Are you coming?'

He shook his head. 'I can't get the car down there, and there's no way I'll get past the police tape. Just... stay safe. Don't do anything stupid and call me as soon as you can, alright?'

Rena didn't point out that she probably couldn't do anything much more stupid than what she'd already done. 'Yeah. I... alright. Why are you helping me?'

She didn't mean to blurt out this last bit, but the thought had been plaguing the back of her mind. If this were the other way around, she wasn't sure that she would go to such lengths to help Caine. Or would she?

Caine looked surprised. 'Because... because you're my friend. Maybe what you've done is dumb but you were probably gonna do it without my help anyway; the least I can do is help you be a little bit safer.'

'I.. thank you. Seriously, I can't thank you enough.'

'You're welcome. We're almost there.'

They continued in silence for a couple of minutes. Then, he turned a sharp left and pulled into the side of the street. 'We're here.'

Rena unbuckled her seatbelt, terrified yet determined. 'Seriously, I can't thank you enough.'

'Yeah well, that's what friends are for. To make sure you don't die.'

Rena laughed, but it was empty. Neither of them seemed to want to point out that there was a chance her own family could be dead. 'Well... I'll see you later I guess.'

Caine looked at her with pity. 'I hope they're all okay. Really, I do.'

'Yeah. So do I.'

She hesitated, unsure of whether or not to say anything else. Then, before she could change her mind, she threw the door open and headed towards the alleyway without a look back.


	12. Chapter 12

The alleyway was a lot longer than Rena had anticipated.

She tried to run, but it was more of a weird, stumbling gallop than anything else. Being away from all that medication had affected her a lot quicker than she'd anticipated; dark spots and flashes were penetrating her vision and she had to stop a couple of times to catch her breath. The adrenaline was the only thing pushing her forwards, but by the time she'd reached the end of the narrow alleyway her store of it had almost been depleted.

The first thing Rena noticed when she emerged into the sunlight was just how dire the whole situation was.

Ambulances and police cars were everywhere. She was across the street from the cafe, but something told her it wasn't the only thing affected by the criminals. Shattered glass was all over the street, the shops and other businesses they were near seemed to have been broken into as well. People were all over the street; some paramedics and police officers but mainly wounded people. Her eyes swept the surroundings quickly and her stomach turned at the sight of someone who looked suspiciously... well... dead.

'What the fuck happened here?' She muttered to herself. She dodged out of the way of a police officer and crossed the street to the cafe, trying her best to look like she should have been there all along. The paramedics outside the cafe were so busy they barely noticed her slip under the yellow tape and climb through a broken window into the main room. A couple of people were being seen to on the floor, it took Rena a few minutes to find someone she recognized in her delirious state. She pushed past doctors and nurses and parents; crying children and parents. It seemed like the whole street was crammed into the small space outside the Lucky Cat.

She edged around the back of the building until she reached the side door. It took a couple of attempts for her to get the code right to open the door, but eventually, she managed to push the heavy door open. She stumbled into the kitchen and crashed into the huge dustbin next to the sink. It fell with a huge bang and sent rubbish sliding all over the floor. Rena cursed and stepped over it cautiously. She shoved the kitchen door open and almost passed out when she saw what was in front of her.

All of the tables were overturned. The glass in the counters was smashed and all over the floor, as were the windows. People were everywhere; both injured and not. Blood was streaked across one of the tables. The cash register had been overturned, brown pennies were littered across the floor. Rena swallowed and sidestepped a frantic looking nurse tending to a bleeding older woman. Her elbow smacked into the wall and she cursed under her breath for the twentieth time that hour. She turned around and felt dizzy with relief when she caught sight of a familiar green blazer.

Tadashi was stood with his back to her, talking to a police officer. Rena hovered behind, deciding it was best to wait until the police officer went to talk to someone else.

'-three men. One was about 6'2" and the other two were slightly shorter, probably just under six foot. They were all wearing matching trench coats and black hats.'

'I see. Anything else?'

'The tallest man had green eyes and a scar on his face. I didn't see the faces of the other two from where I was.'

'Alright. We're currently investigating. With the amount of eye witness reports, there's a high chance we can catch them and get them incarcerated. If there's anything else you think of or forgot to tell me, just call into the station and ask for Sergeant Daniels.'

'Yep, got it. Thank you, officer.'

The officer left and Tadashi sighed, tipping his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. Rena leaped forwards and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hugging him as though he'd slip out of her grasp if she didn't do it right enough. Tadashi gasped and stumbled backward slightly, before realising who was crushing him.

'Hey! I- wait?! What?' Tadashi spluttered, confused. He pulled back and took a look of Rena's face. 'Hey, what the FUCK?!' He exclaimed, horrified.

'Shhhhh! There are KIDS here!'

Tadashi shook his head angrily before grabbing her arm and pulling her back towards the kitchen. He slammed the door shut behind them and sat heavily on the counter, huffing. Rena hung back, slightly ashamed but also still desperate to known what happened.

'Well?' She asked, 'you gonna say anything? Because I have a lot of questions and it was actually very difficult to get here so-'

Tadashi inhaled slowly. 'You and I are going to go outside to one of those ambulances, we're gonna explain the situation and then you're going back to the hospital. Right now.'

'No!' Rena exclaimed loudly, 'I'm fine! Before I go anywhere you're gonna explain to me what the hell went down here! That's what I came for!'

'Why did you come?!' He spluttered, 'you idiot! Why couldn't you just wait?! Would that have really killed you?! Jesus CHRIST do you even realise what you've done?!'

Rena folded her arms and glared at him. 'I'm fine! Just a little dizzy! I'm not a tiny kid, I can make my own decisions.'

'You absolutely can, I never said you couldn't. But you can't just waltz out of hospital whenever you choose! That's not how it works!'

'I know! But I'm here now so shut up. What happened? Is everyone okay?'

Tadashi exhaled loudly. 'I.. I don't know. I think Gogo got injured... or.. or maybe Fred did? It was all so hectic I haven't seen anyone in a while, not even Aunt Cass. I've just been trying to help people.' In an instant, all his anger seemed to melt away. 'I didn't know what to do! It was all.. it was all so hectic! And they were shooting! Actually shooting?! We didn't even do anything! No one did anything! Why'd they even come in here? It's the smallest cafe?! I don't... I should've known! I should've...!' He buried his head in his hands and Rena stood frozen in shock.

Her head was spinning and she was struggling to come up with a coherent thought. She knew her condition was deteriorating but decided to push it to the back of her mind. Tadashi's shoudkers were shaking with sobs and, using the metal counter for balence, she quickly made her way over to him. Leaning on the counter next to him, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him to her side.

'Hey. Nothing that happened here today was your fault, alright?'

'You don't... you don't get it.' He sniffed.

'No, you've just been through a horrible ordeal. Of course it wasn't your fault! You did everything you could, I know you did.'

He shook his head. 'We need to get you to hospital. Now.'

Rena sighed. 'I'm okay.'

'Not for much longer you won't be. You really were stupid for coming here. You're gonna be in so much trouble. How'd you even get out in the first place?'

'Hey, I wanted to know what happened. You think I could just sit around and wait to see if any of you DIED? Nope, not happening.'

'You should've waited.'

'I don't care.'

Tadashi sighed and stood up. He grabbed Rena's hand and pulled her to her feet. 'I still want to know how you escaped.'

'I just walked out to be honest, it wasn't that hard.'

'What? Really?'

'Well I... I had a little help.'

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. 'WHO? No way one of the nurses just let you walk right out of there?'

Rena swallowed. 'Uhh, no... not exactly. It was, uh, it was Caine.'

Tadashi raised his eyebrows. 'Remind me to yell at him next time I see him. Jesus christ, what was he thinking?!'

'No I asked him. He told me to stay, he really did. But I couldn't stand it.'

'Dick.'

Rena elbowed him. She was about to let out a retort when Tadashi let out a hiss of pain and she squinted at him. 'You okay there?'

'Yeah?'

Rena narrowed her eyebrows at him, her eyes drifting towards the slightly dark patch on his arm where she'd just hit him. Dark spots were dancing across her vision and she felt like she was about to throw up, but she still knew what it was. 'Really?'

'Look, we don't have time for this. You look like you're about to pass out.'

'Yeah I probably am. But take your jacket off.'

Tadashi blanched. 'No it's fine! Come on, we can go to the ambulances and they can sort it out later. It's really not a priority.'

Rena wanted to yell in frustration. 'What is it with you?! You need medical attention?! You idiot! You can't lecture me on this and not do it yourself-'

'It's not the same! I'm barely bleeding and you're out here trying to kill yourself-'

'I'm not TRYING to do ANYTHING! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!'

'Oh my god, could you not wait an hour for an update?'

'No! You don't know what it was like-'

'Don't know what it was like?! You DIED! You actually DIED! Do you have ANY IDEA-'

'YOU RAN INTO A FIRE!'

'YOU ESCAPED FROM HOSPITAL!'

They stood staring at one another, seething. Rena gulped in air and Tadashi covered his injured arm. For a second, neither one of them said anything.

'I got a death threat in the mail. I don't know who it was for, and I don't know who it was from. It said 'all of your family will die.' And I'm so very sorry for being more cautious about that, but believe it or not, I don't actually want any of you to die.' Tadashi said.

Rena started at him in horror. 'What the fuck? You didn't think to TELL ME?'

'I didnt want to worry you!'

'WORRY ME? Tadashi - it's a DEATH THREAT? Also, you think I haven't noticed how you've been acting? You think that hasn't worried me enough?'

Tadashi sighed. 'I thought I was protecting you.'

'Yeah well-'

Rena paused and coughed loudly, covering her hand with her mouth. When she brought it away, it was spotted red with blood. She gasped and stumbled back, Tadashi caught her elbow before she fell to the floor. She coughed again, the coughs quickly turning into heaving.

'Maybe... maybe we can... finish this conversation later...' She rasped between coughs, clutching her chest. Her eyes were streaming and her head was spinning.

Tadashi lowered her to the ground and she leant against the side wearily. 'I hate you. How could you not think this would happen?'

'Love you too.'

'Yeah... I'm going to get a nurse.' He said quickly, before standing up and practically running out of the room.

Rena tried to stand, but her legs were wobbling too much to allow her to. She sat back and tried to process what Tadashi had just revealed to her.

Death threats? For who? She couldn't remember having upset anyone, so it probably wasn't for her. Tadashi? His intellect was envied after all...

And then there was Hiro. Sure, he'd got into a lot of trouble botfighting. But that had ended ages ago. Would someone still want to seek revenge? What exactly had her younger brother done, what had he resorted to?

Her eyes watered and she couldn't even muster the strength to wipe them away.

'Just a little peace... that's all I want...'


	13. Chapter 13

Rena awoke to the sound of machines beeping beside her head. She sighed softly and opened her eyes to be once again greeted with the too bright hospital lights that woke her every morning.

It had been just a few hours since she had escaped and ran to the café. In that time, she hadn't seen anyone since she'd been bundled into the back of the ambulance. She'd fought tooth and nail to see a familiar face, but with no such luck. The doctors were furious that she'd managed to escape and she was now under closer surveillance. Eventually, she'd just given into sleep instead of trying to get even the tiniest scrap of information.

So when she awoke to find Hiro curled up into a wooden chair next to her bed, one arm in a sling and a neat line of stitches running across his cheek, it was no surprise that she burst into tears right then and there.

His leg was bandaged and one of his eyes was black. She could see lines of stitches poking it out from under his sleeve and on his cheek. He was curled in the chair awkwardly, wearing the same hoodie she remembered him wearing yesterday.

And it all came flooding back. Her in the kitchen. Tadashi. Broken glass. Death threats. Her stomach twisted and a fresh wave of tears found their way down her exhausted face. Death threats. Deep down, she knew who they were for. But as she looked upon the tiny figure in the wooden chair, she didn't have the heart to believe it.

She cleared her throat and dabbed at her tears with the edge of her covers. The small movements sent waves of pain down her arms and she winced before reaching over and increasing the morphine dosage. Sitting back and waiting for the drugs to do their thing, she fumbled around in the semi-darkness for her phone and grabbed it from the bedside table. A Twitter notification flashed up on her screen and she swiped across immediately after reading the name.

Caine! CaineWithAC123

Hi, I didn't have your number but you mentioned your Twitter handle a bit ago. Are you okay? How's your family? The cafe? I've been constantly refreshing the news every 5 minutes but there's not been that many updates :(

Rena gave a watery smile at the message. Bless him.

rennnnnaaa renaisboring

omg i'm so sorry for not getting back to you earlier. i've literally heard nothing, but i'm like, 99% sure that no one i know is dead or seriously injured. thanks again for your help though.

He responded almost immediately

Caine! CaineWithAC123

RENA! I'm so glad you're okay holy shit! Honestly it was no bother at all, I'm just glad that everyone's alright.

rennnnnaaa renaisboring

yeah :)

pretty weird that someone would want to hold a cafe at gunpoint tho. when i was there it literally seemed like it was the whole street but we got hit worst?

Caine! CaineWithAC

Yeah that is pretty suspicious? I hope the police catch the bastards!

rennnnnaaa renaisboring

yeah. me too.

Rena sighed and placed the phone back onto the table, not bothering to check for any texts or calls. Besides, if she was going to receive any bad news, she'd rather have it in person.

Just when she was considering waking Hiro up herself, he stirred. Rena sat up as he did, coughing and wincing with his newly acquired injuries. For a second, they simply sat there staring at one another.

'You've been crying.' He remarked hoarsely, looking away and absent-mindedly picking at his stitches.

'Don't pick at them. Who knows where your hands have been.'

Hiro gave a small smile. 'Okay Tadashi.'

The only thing that puntuated the silence was the beeping of the moniters and the slow dripping of the drugs being pumped into Rena's system. She glanced at the cannula in her hand. So much had changed in just a couple of weeks.

She sniffed and stretched her arms out. Without a word from either of them, he slowly stood and limped towards the bed. Hiro collapsed onto the side and Rena wrapped an arm around his shoulder, leaning her head on his hair.

'What happened there?' She asked, gesturing to the bandage on his leg.

Hiro sighed. 'Cut it in some glass.'

'Oh.'

'Yeah.'

Rena had a million other questions, but decided not to bombard him with all of them. 'Are you okay?' She asked instead.

Hiro sniffed and wiped a tear away from his eye. 'Yeah. I think. It... it was a lot.'

'Yeah I can imagine. Where are the others?'

'Uhh, Honey Lemon and Fred went home I think, they were okay. Although I think Fred needed stitches? I think Gogo broke something and Wasabi was out cold when I last saw him. Aunt Cass is mostly okay, just a bit shaken up. Tadashi... I think he got stabbed?'

'STABBED?' Rena yelped, startling Hiro.

'I don't think it was that bad! I don't... I don't remember that much.'

Rena remembered the dark patch on her older brother's arm and felt sick. 'Jesus.'

'Yeah. It was horrible.'

Rena felt another tear escape and hugged her brother tighter. The death threats. Was it from the same people? We're they aiming to kill? She was in disbelief that Tadashi had kept it from her for so long, but a part of her was relieved that he finally trusted her enough to tell her. Had he told Hiro? She had a nasty feeling that this had a lot to do with him.

For a long time, they both sat in silence. All these thoughts were turning in Rena's head. How much danger were they in? Or was this all just a coincidence? What the hell did Hiro do? Was this even about him? Or was this about Callaghan?

'Rena?'

'Yeah?'

'We'll be okay... right?'

She waited a long time before answering.

'Yeah. We'll be okay.'


	14. Chapter 14

It had been exactly two weeks since the cafe had been robbed. Rena, Hiro and Tadashi were sat on the floor in Hiro and Tadashi's room. Rena had been let out of the hospital a week before, much to her delight. She was finally able to get back to SFIT and stay at home.

The cafe had been repaired. The damage was extensive, but luckily due to their insurance it was fixed rapidly. Everyone was still a little shaken up about what happened, and the SFPD had not yet managed to apprehend the criminals that did it. Nevertheless, the Hamada siblings were trying their best to remain positive.

'Where's the pencil sharpener?' Rena asked, staring at the many scribbled she'd made on the paper. 'I think I've made a miscalculation.'

Tadashi passed it over without a word and she sharpened it quickly. She drew a neat line over a line of calculation and sat back, chewing the end of the pencil thoughtfully. 'Christ, why does robotics involve so much math?'

Tadashi didn't respond, he was so deeply immersed in his laptop that Rena doubted he even heard her. Hiro lent over her shoulder and pointed to an equation.

'You need to square that. And then do this... yeah... add that to that... square root it... divide this by 4...'

His hand flew over the page and the problem Rena had been struggling with for the past half an hour was solved in under a minute. 'OHHH I get it now! Christ, how'd you do that so fast?'

Hiro grinned. 'I like maths.'

'Can't say the same.' Rena sighed, placing the paper to the side and stretching. 'Boring subject to be honest. If it weren't for the fact that I need to take it, I would've been rid of it years ago to be honest.'

'I feel the same about English.'

'Writing's fun! You're just boring.'

'Yeah yeah. Whatever.'

Hiro adjusted his sling before grabbing another textbook from the huge stack and began frantically scribbling in another notepad. 'Oh, I ordered the stuff we needed for Baymax a couple of days ago by the way. I covered the money though, you don't need to worry about it.'

Rena stared at him. Even Tadashi looked up from his work to gawp at their little brother.' 'How... how did you manage to cover it? Didn't it come to a few hundred dollars?'

Hiro shrugged, his cheeks slowly going red. 'Oh! I had uh... I had some money saved from a while back.'

Tadashi squinted at him suspiciously. 'How much? You said you spent it all on that new computer.'

'Oh... not ALL of it...'

Rena's mind drifted back to the death threats. They'd been plaguing her mind for the last couple of weeks, but neither her nor Tadashi had told Hiro. They hadn't even had a chance to discuss it with one another, mainly due to the fact that Rena was trying to avoid thinking about it. She knew it had a connection with how she had almost died, but the idea that this was linked to Hiro was hard to swallow.

She gripped his non-injured hand. 'Please tell me you're not botfighting. Please.'

'Wha... No! Where'd you get that from? Of course I'm not!' Hiro spluttered, pulling his arm away from her.

'Then where's the money from?' Tadashi asked, attention now completely away from his computer.

'I already told you! I had it saved! Can we please stop talking about this?'

Tadashi gave Rena a Look which she translated in her mind as 'we need to investigate' but for now decided to drop it. 'Okay fine. We need to be at SFIT soon anyway, I told Gogo we'd be there before seven.'

Tadashi reached over and grabbed his prosthetic. 'Well, might as well get going now then. Baymax still has a lot of work that needs doing!'

Rena tossed her homework to the side and stood before helping Tadashi to his feet. 'I'm already dying of excitement.'

'You are going to clean that up right?' He asked, gesturing to her discarded books on the floor, 'this isn't your bedroom.'

'Yeah, yeah I'll do it.'

Tadashi was still fiddling with his leg when Hiro had grabbed his hoodie and darted off down the stairs. Rena stood and waited for her brother. Tadashi straightened out and as she turned to leave he grabbed her wrist.

'Rena. He's doing it again isn't he?'

Rena swallowed anxiously, her eyes drifting towards the stairs. Knowing Hiro, he was probably crouched there listening in to their conversation. Suddenly, an image flashed in her mind. She was crouching in the bathroom cupboard, searching for antiseptic. She blinked and the image moulded to Hiro stood in the doorway, a wild look in his eyes and blood dripping down his leg.

'I... shit.' She muttered under her breath. She was so out of it she hadn't thought to make the connection until now...

'What?! What is it?'

He'd been botfighting. Clearly. How had she not thought about that until now? Her mind had been so preoccupied it had completely slipped from her head. Of course he was botfighting!

The only question was why. Was SFIT not enough for him? Was he just bored? Or was there something else going on? Either way - she had to find out. For his own safety.

'He's definitely botfighting. I...' She paused, uncertain whether or not to tell Tadashi. However, she realised that he'd probably kill her if he ever found out he kept that from her. 'Remember like... the night I got... uh... poisoned? Yeah well... I woke up and he had come back in the house. His leg was bleeding... but I was too out of it to make the connection. I... I completely forgot.'

Tadashi's face went white. 'Oh.' He whispered quietly. 'We have to do something!'

'GUYS? You coming?' Hiro yelled up the stairs.

Rena jumped. 'Yeah! In a sec!' She called back down. She turned back to Tadashi, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. 'There has to be a reason!' She hissed, 'I... let's follow him. When he next goes out.'

Tadashi nodded, face determined. 'Yeah. Then we can confront him.'

Rena didn't like it, but she didn't want to accuse her little brother of doing something when he might not be after all. 'Yeah. Okay.'  
\--------------------------------------  
Rena sat on the edge of Honey Lemon's desk, holding a stopwatch and peering closely at a conical flask for her.

They were at SFIT - all of them. The friends hadn't had much chance to see each other in the past few weeks, especially seeing as most of them were a little worse for wear after the incident at the cafe.

Fred was lounging on one of the couches as usual, a bandage around his shoulder. Wasabi had a line of stitches running across one arm and a cheek, and Gogo had been on crutches much to her fury. Hiro still had his arm in a sling and Tadashi had a bandage around his arm as well. Honey Lemon had broken her collarbone. However, the team were still in positive spirits and were all determined to put the incident behind them. Well, apart from Fred, who was still giving his wild theories on who could have been responsible.

'... Yeah but... what if it was Krei this time? I'm being serious!' He added loudly as Gogo laughed at him from her corner.

'Yep Fred,' she said, sitting on the side and tapping on her laptop, 'it's definitely Krei. Yep, because there's tons of benefits of sending a load of armed robbers to a tiny cafe!'

'Gogo's right.' Rena said, 'just give it up Fred. Honey, this is done now.' She handed the timer back to the taller girl and strolled on over to Fred before collapsing onto the couch beside him.

'Thanks Rena!' Honey Lemon called, scribbling some numbers down into a notepad.

'Don't you have some work to do?' Wasabi asked Rena dubiously as she sat back and pulled her phone out from her pocket.

'Maybe.' She replied, sighing. 'Eh, I'll do it later. Besides, I came to help with Baymax.'

'Then you could come help!' Tadashi called from the corner. He was crouched awkwardly on the floor next to a huge pile of parts, tools and bolts. Hiro was in the very far corner of the lab, soldering together some circuits.

'In a minute!' She called back, logging onto Twitter. Her feed was flooded with rainbows and pride flags. She sighed and clicked off the app almost immediately.

It wasn't like she was scared of how everyone would react when she came out. She knew deep down that everyone would be fine with it. Rena didn't know what was holding her back - but in that moment she thought she'd rather drink a bucket of cold sick than come out to all her family and friends.

'Okay, Rena. Listen - the robber was Yama. Wanna know how I know?' Fred asked enthusiastically as soon as the conversation died.

Rena snorted. 'Yama's like the size of a house. Would be even be able to fit through the door?'

'Oh yeah? Hiro was terrified when he walked in - the little guy dropped a glass on the floor as soon as they were at the counter.' Fred said smugly.

Rena sat up straighter, her mind whirring. So it was connected to Hiro. The cafe. The death threat. It all linked back to botfighting -it had to. Surely. There was no other logical reason that her family would be threatened with death. 'Are you sure about that last bit? Absolutely positive?'

Fred nodded. 'Yeah! 100%!'

She sighed deeply. 'O... okay. I don't think it has a connection though... he was probably just scared.'

Fred didn't seem to be disheartened. 'Yeah well, I have a hundred other ideas so...'

'Great! Tell me later!' She said quickly before practically jumping out her seat and running over to her older brother.

She crouched down next to Tadashi and dropped her voice to a whisper. 'It's gotta be connected. All of this. We need to find out what's happening - and fast. Before anyone else gets hurt.'

Tadashi nodded, his face grave. 'We need answers. And we also need Baymax.' He nodded to the pile of materials that had collected on the floor. 'All the more reason to get this done as quickly as possible. I could finish the actual bot within a couple of days with Hiro's help. It's just the chip that's slowing us down.'

Rena nodded. 'Yeah. We definitely need Baymax before anything else happens. What do you need me to do?'

Tadashi considered for a moment. 'There's a black leather notebook on the desk in my lab. I'm also gonna need my laptop. If that's okay with you. I'd go myself but...'

He gestured to where his prosthetic was lying on the ground. Rena nodded and got to her feet. 'Okay. Fine. I'm going.'

She practically ran to Tadashi's lab, the importance of finishing the robot now the only thing on her mind. She flicked the lights on and scanned the room for the notebook.

'Black notebook... black notebook...' She muttered to herself. She backed away into the corner, rifling through a heavy looking stack of books on top of a filing cabinet.

Rena turned around, her leg smacking into something hard. She swore loudly before realising what it was. Baymax's old rocket fist. She smiled weakly and patted the side.

'Not long now buddy... not long now.' She whispered. As she did so, something caught the corner of her eye. Something green. Rena blinked in surprise and pulled back the robotic fingers to reveal...

'The chip!' She exclaimed in glee, not caring that she was yelling this to an empty room. She could've danced with glee. This might be the thing that could prevent anything else from happening to anyone! They could be safe!'

She scooped it up quickly and switched off the lights, running as fast as she could back to the main lab. Her shoes squeaked noisily on the floor but she could barely hear it over her own panting. Technically, she wasn't allowed to run at all. Doctor's orders. In her excitement though, she had completely forgotten.

By the time she reached the lab, there was no air left in her lungs. She kicked the door open and burst in, hands on her knees and panting.

'I've... got! The...' She gasped.

Someone's hand was on her back. Honey Lemon. 'You okay?' She asked kindly, eyeing Rena with concern.

'Yeah!' Rena breathed, walking unsteadily over to Tadashi.

'Damn you're really unfit.' He said, laughing. 'Hang on, did you even grab the stuff? Honestly I...'

He trailed off mid sentence as Rena held the chip victoriously in the air. 'Look what I found!' She exclaimed, grinning.

From behind her, Honey Lemon gasped and Fred let out a celebratory whoop. Tadashi stared, speechless at the tiny green chip his sister was brandishing.

Then, he sprang to his feet and tackled her with a hug, momentarily forgetting that he could barely stand on his own. The pair of them came crashing to the floor with a yell of surprise then a quick shriek of laughter.

'Get off!' Rena gasped, pushing him off her. Tadashi rolled away, grinning. He snatched the chip greedily from her outstretched hand and ran his fingers along the smooth surface, examining it.

'I can't believe it.' He whispered in awe.

'Baymax must have left it for you.' Honey Lemon said, grinning hugely.

'Got to hand it to you,' Gogo said, hobbling over on one crutch, 'pretty impressive coding.

'Yeah.' Rena said, grinning to her brother. 'It was.'


	15. Chapter 15

Jason Fournier sat alone in a cold, dark room. He sat in his chair, back straight and eyes staring directly at a spot on the blank wall. Three months. Three months since that kid... that puny child had killed her. Marissa. Three months, and he still hadn't got his revenge. He had promised her he would get revenge, every fibre in his body ached to watch him suffer. Suffer in the way that Jason had for the past three months.

He was beginning to get impatient.

Sure, he'd robbed his home and poisoned his family. But that was just the warm up act. That was nothing - nothing - compared to what Fournier was about to do.

Jason slammed his fist down on the desk. Instantly, the door opened and a blonde haired adolescent slithered into the room. He stood in front of Fournier's desk, adjusting his glasses and smiling slightly.

That smile sent a shiver of rage down the psychopath's spine. 'And WHAT are YOU happy about?!'

Caine's smile instantly slipped off his face. 'Nothing! Nothing sir... I am sorry.'

Jason glared at him. 'How's the target?'

'I've done as you said. I've stayed out of the way, only staying in contact with his close friends and family.'

Jason nodded. 'As I expected. Good. We cannot risk him recognising you. It was already a close call with the cafe.'

Caine shifted uncomfortably. 'Yeah... I heard about that.'

Jason sighed, agitated. 'It was an issue on my part. No problem though, the next part of the plan WILL go correctly. I will personally ensure it.'

'Right. Um... what is the next part of the plan?'

Fournier fixed him with a glare so intense he flinched, terrified of the older man sat in front of him. 'Yama.' He said simply, grinning nastily.

'The botfighter?'

'Yes. Brainless of course, but he is intimidating. That is all we need. Of course though, this section of the plan has been in place for quite some time. The trap has been set. Now it needs to be activated.'

Caine did not respond, so Jason ploughed on. 'I saw Yama myself, two months ago. The night after the SFIT fire, if you remember. We made a deal. The stupid child has been fighting with his bots for months.' He chuckled. 'I knew as soon as I saw him that that child was too weak to quit.'

'His family is not aware that he is still botfighting.'

'Exactly as I planned. We will destroy them from the inside. We are at the beginning of the end. Hiro Hamada will suffer, I will make sure of it.'  
\--------------------------------------------  
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'

Rena paused, holding a wooden spoon. 'Uhh, mixing the batter?'

'Put that down right now. You need to WHISK it!' Tadashi cried, seizing the spoon out of her grasp.

'What?' She asked. He tossed the book to her and she peered at the writing. 'Oh yeah. Whisk. I see it now.'

Tadashi rolled his eyes. 'Honestly! As if you think you can just stir brownies!'

'What difference does it make though?'

'Baking is a science!'

'Yeah yeah.'

'Hey, we are at a PROFESSIONAL standard here! Aunt Cass does not want to be selling your sub par brownies!'

'OI!' Rena grabbed a handful of flour from the huge bag and flung it at him. 'How dare you! I think you'll find I'm a baking extraordinaire!'

Tadashi stood and gaped at her, his hair white with flour. 'You did not just do that oh my god.'

Rena cackled evilly. 'That's what you get for insulting my amazing baking!'

'Nah, you're anything but! Remember that victoria sponge?!' He exclaimed, hurling a handful of flour in her direction and grinning like a maniac.

Rena took the opportunity to throw another handful of flour at her older brother. 'We DO NOT talk about the victoria sponge!'

Tadashi yelled as the flour settled all over him. He reached across the counter and threw a handful right back at her. Rena coughed and spluttered from the midst of a massive cloud of white.

'RENA! This is the WORK KITCHEN... you know... where people have to WORK and food for CUSTOMERS is prepared? OI!' He yelled again, as she advanced on him menacingly with the paper bag. 'Don't you DARE!'

She was about to tip the entire bag over his head when they were interrupted by Hiro. 'Hey! Wait... what have you been doing?!'

Rena and Tadashi looked at each other and laughed. 'Uhhh... flour fight?' She offered, grinning.

'I thought I was supposed to be the immature one!' Hiro said, dropping his bag on the floor and perching on the end of the counter. Rena responded to this comment by grabbing a handful of flour and promptly dumping it on his head. Hiro twisted around and attempted to push her away. Instead of doing this however, he twisted around and fell onto the floor with a thump, the flour on his head falling and creating a huge white cloud around him.

Aunt Cass walked into the kitchen to the sight of Rena and Tadashi bent over crying their eyes out with laughter, each holding onto the side for support. Hiro was sat on the floor, mouth open in a comical O shape and absolutely covered in flour, even to the point as it was difficult to see the black of his hair beneath all the white.

'I asked you to do one thing.' She said quietly, burying her face in her hands. But she wasn't angry. She grinned at the sight of her nephew on the floor, happy to finally see all three of them happy again, especially considering the events of the past few months.

Hiro clambered to his feet, brushing flour off his hoodie and trying to shake it out his hair. This was futile, he had half a bag on his him.

'I'd say I'm sorry,' Rena said, standing up and wiping tears away from the corners of her eyes. 'But uh... what can I say? That was hilarious?'

'I hate you.' Hiro said, choking slightly on flour.

Cass snapped a photo of him sulking. 'Oh that one is so being framed!' She said, laughing.

'If that one is being framed then I want the one of Tadashi with no eyebrows to be framed!'

Cass studied him for a second and nodded. 'Okay. Deal.'

'Wait a minute!' Tadashi exclaimed, 'why am I being dragged into this?'

When he was fourteen, Tadashi had attempted to make a device that could fold a bedsheet in seconds. It was a pointless invention, only made because Moshi would like to hide in the sheets whenever anyone (mainly Tadashi or Aunt Cass) tried to fold them, only making a difficult job even harder. The first time had had gone to use it, it had exploded in his face, singing off his fringe and eyebrows. For a few weeks he walked around with no eyebrows, and both Rena and Hiro marked it very highly in their list of 'top three best ever moments to happen ever.'

'Okay what about that photo of Rena when...'

'NO NO NO!' She yelled, clamping her hands over her ears. God knows what Hiro was about to say, but Rena had done plenty of embarrassing things. None of which she wanted to be permanently framed in the living room.

Thankfully, she was saved by Robbie pushing the door open and sticking his head in. Aside from Iris, Robbie was the other member of waiting on staff at the lucky cat. He had a messy mop of ginger hair and round, Harry Potter style glasses. He was very serious in front of customers, but he was one of the loudest people Rena had ever met once they were all out of the door.

'Hey Cass, some bitch is demanding that her coffee isn't strong enough and I've already added three more shots of espresso, should I just refund her before she has a heart attack or something?' He stepped into the kitchen properly and his eyes widened at the mess. 'I'm not even gonna ask what went on here.'

'Yeah I wouldn't.' Hiro replied.

Cass looked at Robbie. 'THREE shots of espresso?!'

Robbie held his hands up defensively. 'Don't blame me! She's scary and I have confrontation issues!'

Rena rolled her eyes at him and he grinned at her before heading back through. Rena could hear the muffled yells of an angry woman and smirked. 'Unfortunate. Aren't you glad she stuck us in here now?' She said, gesturing to Cass.

Aunt Cass rolled her eyes dramatically. 'That's what I get for trying to keep you out of trouble. Next week, you're on dishes.' She said, pointing to Rena. Before she could even respond, Cass had sped out of the kitchen to try and save one of her servers from being killed.

Hiro stuck his tongue out at his sister. 'That's what you get! Now I'm going for a shower.'

'I'll finish these brownies.' Tadashi said, 'Rena, you can clean up.'

'Now wait a minute... how was I supposed to realise my actions would have consequences?! This is SO UNFAIR!'

Hiro fell back onto his bed, blowing a strand of wet hair out his face. It had taken him ages to scrub all that flour out his hair, there was so much in there that even half an hour later there was still a white tinge to it.

His phone buzzed on the side and he grabbed it, sliding right on the message to find a picture of Rena with her middle finger flipped up to the camera, on her hands and knees and with a dustpan and brush in hands.

Tadashi: And that is what you get!

You: Too right! That took me ages to get out my hair!

Rena's message came through a minute later.

Rena: yeah and i'd do it again

Hiro rolled his eyes and clicked his phone off, letting his hand fall to his side. His eyes drifted over to his Megabot, already itching to get back to the ring and win his cash. He needed it desperately - Baymax was almost finished and making robots was as an expensive job. Plus, he'd accidentally seen the total of medical bills a couple of weeks back and had almost passed out with how ridiculously high the number was and had now taken to adding in a bills everywhere - in the cash register, kitchen table, behind the counter at the cafe. Even in his family's pockets. It was small, but better than nothing.

If botfighting was the only way he could be useful, then so be it.

Besides, it wasn't dangerous. Well... it was. But he hadn't been thrown in jail in MONTHS, and as far as he was concerned nobody suspected anything. He hoped to God they didn't... that would be a hell of an awkward conversation he would do anything to avoid.

He checked his watch. 6pm. Not long and he could sneak out, Rena and Tadashi were planning on going to SFIT so it would be easy to avoid them. He felt a stab of guilt but quickly dismissed it. He needed to take his chance whilst he still had it, Baymax was almost complete and once Tadashi had finished the diagnostics protocol it would be over for him.

Yama would be there tonight. Hiro cracked his knuckles. Whenever he and Yama fought, there was always a huge crowd. He grabbed his bot from the side and fiddled with a screwdriver, not wanting to break his winning streak even if it mean being beaten up. He was a big name in the botfighting business, couldn't afford to slip up now.

No matter how hard his friends may try, they could never quench the dying need for a botfight that roared inside him.


	16. Chapter 16

'Ow.'

'Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion.'

Tadashi whooped victoriously, eyes shining with tears. 'YES! Okay, scan me!'

Rena watched, grinning as Tadashi bounced on the balls of his feet, answering Baymax's questions with nothing but pure joy. Tadashi turned to her and smiled hugely, gesturing to Baymax.

'He works! FINALLY! He works!' He exclaimed excitedly.

Rena pulled him into a hug. 'Of course he works moron, you're the one that built him.'

Tadashi hugged her back. 'Yeah well. You helped!'

She pulled away from him, holding his shoulders at arms length and shaking her head. 'This was all you! I've done fuck all!'

She let go of her bother and stepped towards Baymax, studying the robot studiously. 'You literally cannot tell the difference between the original one! He's perfect!'

'Yeah well, that diagnostics protocol was so thorough I should think so.'

'What's up buddy!' She exclaimed excitedly, extending her arm out for a fist bump.

Baymax gently bumped his giant hand against her fist. 'Ba la la la la la la.'

'Good to have you back.'

'Thank you.'

Rena grabbed Tadashi's hand and squeezed it. 'Hiro's gonna be so pumped!'

Tadashi's eyes were shining 'yeah! Let's get Baymax home, I want him to see what we've done!'

Rena nodded, already beginning to pack up her stuff. Their little brother had no idea what they were up to - as far as he was conceded Baymax wasn't due to be finished for another week and a half.

Exactly twenty minutes later, they were packed up in Aunt Cass's car, Baymax in his red charging port in the backseat. Tadashi was driving, Rena was in the passenger seat. The latter was drumming her fingers on the dashboard as she flicked through her playlist.

'What you thinking?'

Tadashi rolled his eyes. 'It's a fifteen minute drive! Does it really matter?'

Rena simply ignored him. Idiot, of course it mattered. 'I'm gonna go with 'songs that make me feel alive again.' Any objections?'

'Why's your playlist called that?'

'Because these are some top quality songs!' She retorted, plugging her phone in and clicking shuffle. 'Oh TUNE!'

She cranked the volume right up, Fall Out Boy blasting so loud her ears began to ring. She grinned over at her brother who shook his head at her.

'If we crash it's your fault.'

'Noted.'

Fifteen minutes later, they pulled up outside the familiar site of the Lucky Cat. Rena unbuckled her seatbelt quick as lightning and dove out the door, immediately wrenching open the back door and pulling the red charging port onto the pavement. Tadashi appeared next to her and grabbed one side, Rena getting the other. Together (and after much frustration), they hauled Baymax into the basement.

'Jeez,' Rena panted as Tadashi flicked the lights on 'couldn't you make that thing any lighter?'

'Just be glad we stuck with the vinyl!'

The plan was to hide Baymax in the corner behind the couch so he could inflate and terrify Hiro. 'Just in the corner over there yeah?' Rena asked Tadashi. The latter nodded and she pushed Baymax across the floor, trying her best not scratch the red charging port.

'Alright.' She said straightening up. 'That's that done.'

'You go grab him then and I can wait down here.' He pointed to his prosthetic. 'I need to take this off.'

Rena nodded, turning and making her way up the stairs as Tadashi flopped down onto the couch. Her fingers traced the banister and she smiled to herself. So far, so good.

Aunt Cass was sitting at the kitchen table, humming to herself and tapping keys on a laptop. Mochi was on her lap, purring softly.

'Hey Aunt Cass!'

'Oh Rena! Hi! When did you get back?'

'Just now - Tadashi and I have a surprise for Hiro.'

'Oh do tell!'

Rena grinned at her, leaning against the counter. 'Tadashi finished the second version of Baymax.'

Aunt Cass clapped her hands together excitedly, scaring Mochi and sending him running across the room and up the stairs. Cass didn't notice in her excitement. 'Oh wow! What ever did happen to the first one?'

Rena laughed uncertainly. 'It's uhhh... it's a long story. Is Hiro upstairs?'

Aunt Cass frowned. 'I thought he was with you?'

'Uhh... no? It was just Tadashi and I at SFIT.'

'Oh.' Her Aunt looked frightened for a second before shaking her head and smiling warmly at her niece. 'I must just be mistaken. I swear he told me he was going with you but he might have changed his mind.'

Rena couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. 'Okay! I'll go grab him then. Love you!' She added over her shoulder as she skipped towards the stairs.

'Love you too!'

Rena ran up the stairs two at a time, the uneasy feeling in her chest growing when she realised the light in Hiro and Tadashi's room was off.

'Hiro?'

There was no reply. She flicked the light on and wasn't surprised to see that Hiro was not there.

'Fuck.' She muttered under her breath, pulling out her phone. 'Shit.'

She rang Hiro's number, but was dismayed to find that as soon as she punched the number in his phone started vibrating from his bedside table. She crossed the room in two strides and clicked it on, her own missed call displayed on the screen.

She ran a hand through her hair. So Hiro was gone and had left his phone at home. Fine. He was probably at SFIT. They'd just missed him. Or a friend's house. Yeah. Probably. Hopefully.

She sighed loudly. Typical. Just when she was beginning to feel relaxed - something else had to happen!

Something soft brushed against her leg. Mochi. She crouched down and scratched his head, smiling softly as he purred. ' What are we gonna do, eh?' She whispered to the cat. 'Where is he? You gonna help me find him?'

As if Mochi could understand what she was saying, the cat jumped onto Hiro's desk and sat on his keyboard. The screen whirred to life to display a website. Rena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and stepped towards the computer. She brushed Mochi's tail off the mouse and scrolled down.

'I'm gonna fucking kill him.' She whispered as she read the details on the website. She seized a scrap piece of paper lying on his mess of a desk and scribbled down the street address before shoving it deep into her pocket.

'Thank you.' She whispered, kissing the top of Mochi's head before turning and practically falling down the stairs in her haste to get down them.

'I'm going out!' She called to Cass, not giving her Aunt a chance to respond as she ran through the tiny apartment.

She barrelled down the stairs, jumping into the basement and scaring the life out of her older brother.

'Calm down!' He exclaimed, putting a hand over his heart. 'Not everything's a race!'

It took a second for Rena to get her breath back. 'He's not upstairs and his phone-' she took it out her pocket and tossed it to Tadashi '-is here'

Tadashi gave her a confused look. 'Is he at SFIT? I thought he said he was staying at home.'

Rena shook her head and brought out the scrunched up paper. Tadashi grabbed it, his face slowly loosing colour as he read what was on it. 'Does this mean what I think it means?'

Rena pressed her lips together and nodded. 'Yeah.' She whispered quietly.

Immediately, and without saying a word, they both sprang into action. Tadashi was attaching his prosthetic, muttering under his breath whilst Rena frantically googled for the address.

'Found it!' She said after a minute or so, 'it's a ten minute drive from here.'

Tadashi nodded. 'You stay here. I'll take the moped, it'll be faster.'

Rena scoffed loudly. 'Yeah, like I'm letting that happen. The car will be fast enough.'

'Rena, please. It's dangerous. I got this!'

She folded her arms and shook her head. 'Absolutely not. I am not letting you go alone.'

'Rena-'

'If you don't let me go I'll just call Gogo and get everyone involved.'

Tadashi held her gaze for a moment and sighed. 'Okay. But we're bringing Baymax.'

Together, they hauled the red case back to the car and shoved it into the backseat. Rena jumped into the passenger seat, sense of emergency rising with every passing second.

Tadashi pulled out of the street, going slightly over the speed limit. Rena's palms were sweating, but the adrenaline was kicking in. 'Okay, take a left here-'

For ten minutes they drove in almost silence, fear numbing their minds. Rena looked over at Tadashi, his jaw was set and he was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. He was furious.

She knew he was thinking the exact same thing that she was. They could have stopped this. She could have stopped this. If she was just more alert! Rena spotted the warning signs months ago, but instead of putting her little brother's wellbeing first she decided to ignore them and pretend like they weren't there. And now she was paying the price for that.

'You have arrived at your destination.'

The robotic voice of Google maps brought her back to the present. The car crawled to a stop and she clambered our, shivering in the night air.

They were across the street from dimly lit back alley. She could already hear jeers and shouts from where they were stood. Fear prickled down her spine. How Hiro survived out here she had no idea. A man was crouched next to a bin, his head bowed so low it was touching his knees. Needles and empty beer bottles littered the streets, shards of broken glass crunches beneath her old Vans.

The scene of the botfight, and an elegant one at that.


	17. Chapter 17

Tadashi materialised next to Rena, his arm pressed against her side. She was brought swiftly back to reality and offered him a weak smile he did not return.

'Help me get Baymax out.' Tadashi said, opening the passenger door and leaning across to grab the robot.

'Wait-' Rena grabbed his arm and he stared at her, a look of confusion displayed upon his pale face. 'Don't you think it's best if we leave Baymax here? He's not very inconspicuous, and definitely not ideal for a quick getaway.' Tadashi opened his mouth to continue but she ploughed on, 'and I know he'd be good for in case anyone gets hurt but think about it!'

'Yeah but-'

'Let's leave him here, readily waiting by the car. That way, as soon as we get here we can hop in and if any injuries need to be treated he can do that as soon as possible. Yeah?'

Tadashi chewed his lip, uncertain. Then, clearly aware of the time they were wasting, he nodded. 'Okay.'

He pulled the charging case out and Rena helped to haul it onto the filthy pavement.

'Ow.'

As Baymax inflated, Rena pulled her hoodie tighter around herself and shivered. It wasn't that cold out temperature wise, but the street was dark and unforgiving, the shattered class and half-lit cigarettes littered across the floor glittered threateningly in the moonlight. How Hiro could survive out here, with no one to have his back, she had no idea. Rena has to hand it to him - the kid had one hell of a backbone.

'Okay Baymax, stay here. Got it? We'll be back soon.' Tadashi hesitated, a plan seeming to form in his head. 'If we're not back in half an hour then call Fred and everyone - tell them we need help. Got it?'

'Yes. Timer set for 30 minutes.' Baymax sat down gently onto the pavement, staring at them with his robotic eyes. 'Address logged.'

'Thank you.' Tadashi turned to his sister, his jaw set. 'Well, what are we waiting for?'

They kept together as they crept down the alleyway, the only noise that rang out in the bitter night air was the cracking of class beneath their shoes.

Rena held her breath, fumbling around in the semi-darkness. She reached out and clutched at Tadashi's sleeve, fingers curling tightly around the fabric. Her older brother stepped slightly in front, desperate to do whatever he could to protect her. Ordinarily, she would've been annoyed. However, due to the recent hospitalization and the fear crawling it's way up her throat, the teen found herself not minding as much as she should have.

'Bot fighting!' She whispered, 'why couldn't it have been fishing! Or... or train spotting!'

Tadashi shook his head, pulling her along. 'Oh yeah cause train spotting is absolutely his thing.'

'Well y'know... I could maybe see it. Maybe.'

'Yeah well-'

Tadashi was stopped mid-sentence when they rounded the corner and almost crashed straight into a burly looking man, tattoos all the way up his arms and beefy neck. Rena gave a sharp squeak of surprise and tugged on Tadashi's sleeve, almost pulling him backwards in the process. The man stared down at them hungrily.

'What are you kids doing down here? Get gone!' He barked.

'We're uhh... we're here for the botfighting!' Tadashi said, standing up straighter in a weak attempt to appear more intimidating.

The man stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. 'Yeah, cause you two kids are involved with botfighting. Good one. Do yourselves a favour and run along back home to Mommy and Daddy before I kick your asses there myself.'

Rena let go of her brother and tried to make herself look more important. 'We're associates of Hiro Hamada.'

The man stopped laughing and suddenly looked a little frightened. 'Hiro Hamada? The three-time champion? The kid?'

'That's right.'

He paused, seemingly unsure of what to say. 'That kid is banned, strictly speaking. Yama's orders.'

'But he's here isn't he?'

He narrowed his eyes. 'What exactly are your connections with Hamada?'

'We're uhh...'

'Managers!' Tadashi interrupted, 'yes. Managers. The kid earns a lot of money, as you said. He's a champion! Of course he's not doing everything alone.'

The man sighed. 'Fine, but if you go in you're doing it at your own risk. The kid and Yama are having a rematch, the match begins soon. If I hear you causing any trouble, be rest assured you will live to regret it. Do you understand me?'

'Oh absolutely Sir.' Tadashi said, voice trembling slightly. 'You won't hear a peep from us.'

The man glared at them as they hurried past, desperate to get away from him and his menacing glare.

'Where the hell are we going?' Rena asked, craning her neck around to see the crowd they'd just heard.

Tadashi was about to answer when a door from a few feet away was threw open and a gangly looking teenager was tossed out, landing sprawling on the concrete. Pieces of broken robot flew everywhere, scattering across the floor and rolling around. The kid scrambled to collect the remains if his bot as the man who so cruelly threw him out laughed scarily.

'Kid, don't bother coming back unless your bot can manage to stand up.'

The door slammed shut and the teen bowed his head, wiping frantically at his eyes. Tadashi stepped past his sister and bent down, scooping up microchips and broken shards of metal. He handed them to the boy, who recoiled as though he'd slapped him.

'It's okay, I won't hurt you.'

'Shut up and leave me alone.' The kid barked, shoving the pieces into his pocket.

'Well there's no need for that.' Rena said.

He jumped slightly, clearly unaware she was even there. 'Fuck off.'

'They kicked you out?' Tadashi asked.

The kid sniffed. 'Yeah. All cause the stupid bot wouldn't work.'

'What's your name?' Rena asked.

'...Brian.'

'That's not your real name, is it?'

'No.'

Tadashi stood with some difficulty, leaning against the wall for support. Brian watched him, a confused look on his face.

Rena cleared her throat and Brian turned to look at her. She got a proper look of his face. He had a terrified look in his eyes and a bloody nose. She felt a twinge of sadness when she looked at him - he looked Hiro's age. 'Brian, what are you doing? You know how dangerous this is? You do realise you can get arrested doing this?'

Brian stood up, a determined look on his face. 'Yeah. And I don't care! I need the money, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it.'

'Why can't you just get a job?' Tadashi asked.

'Because this is way cooler! And it pays more. Well, it would if I could get the robot working.'

Rena and Tadashi exchanged a look. 'Brian,' Rena said, 'don't ruin your life botfighting.'

'I'm not gonna ruin anything! Honestly, you sound like my Mom!'

'Take it from me, my brother Hiro is a botfighter-'

Brian's jaw dropped. 'You mean THE Hiro Hamada? He's YOUR BROTHER?'

Rena narrowed her eyes. 'Why? You know him?'

'Course I know him! There's not a botfighter out there that doesn't know his name! He defeated Yama in record time! You know he's only the second person to EVER do that-'

'Really?' Tadashi interrupted, 'who was the first?'

Brian shuddered. 'This guy... his name's Fournier. He's the scariest guy in the game, seriously. No one ever messes with him. Ever.'

Rena raised her eyebrows. 'What, did Hiro defeat him too?'

'I- there are rumours he did. No one actually knows for sure - if Fournier finds out you've been telling people he was defeated he would surely kill you.'

Even in the semi-darkness, Rena could see that Tadashi's face drained of colour. 'Really? How does this guy have that much power?'

'He's a psycho! Him and his brother - they're well known in the scene. Everyone knows to steer clear from them and their gang. Ruthless.' Brian shuddered dramatically.

'Brian, we need to find Hiro. Can you help us?' Tadashi questioned.

Brian raised his eyebrows. 'And why would I do that?'

'Because he's 14 and shouldn't be there. Come on, please.'

Brian laughed. 'Guys, he's one of the biggest names out there. He'll be fine! As long as he doesn't defeat Yama again.' He added quietly.

'But he will. Come on, you know he will.' Tadashi pleaded, 'come on! Help us out man!'

Brian shook his head. 'No can do I'm afraid. Besides, I've just been kicked out.'

'I'll introduce you to Hiro!' Rena exclaimed.

Brian stared at her, eyes wide. 'You will?'

'Yeah, only if you help us in here and out. FAST.'

Brian considered. 'Okay. Fine. But we can't go in through that door, else I'll be beaten up or something. ' He pointed upwards, 'there's a window up there. If we can get through there we'll end up in the bathroom.'

Rena shuddered. 'Men's room?'

'Do you want my help or not?'

She sighed. 'Fine! How are we gonna get up there?'

Brian smirked. 'Glad you asked. Be right back!'

He darted around the corner and down another side alley. As soon as he was out of earshot, Tadashi turned to Rena.

'It's been ages. What if we're too late? What if they've beaten him up?'

'Chill. You know how these botfighters are, as soon as things turn nasty they run. Cowards, the whole lot of them.'

Tadashi sighed, 'yeah. I guess so.'

Rena craned her neck around the corner, looking for Brian. 'Where the hell has he gotten to? Does he not realise we're in a bit of a hurry? You know, it would be good to get Hiro before he gets beaten to a pulp by Yama and his gang of cronies!'

Just as she said this, Brian appeared out of nowhere. He was hauling along a ladder behind him. 'Okay, we can use this to get up there-'

Rena stared at him. 'Why the fuck do you have a ladder? Where's that from?'

Brian shrugged. 'It's not my first time being kicked out. I like to be prepared!'

Rena shook her head, baffled as he lent the ladder against the building and began to climb. About halfway up, he looked down at them and called 'what are you waiting for?!'

'For fucks sake.' Rena muttered under her breath, rolling up her sleeves and standing at the base of the ladder. 'Are you sure you don't want me to hold it?' She called up to Brian.

'Nope! Should be fine!'

Rena turned to Tadashi. 'Can you believe this kid? What the actual fuck is happening right now?'

Tadashi shook his head, grinning despite everything. 'He reminds me of Hiro.'

Rena laughed. 'Yeah. Too dangerous for his own good.' She paused, eyes drifting to her brother's leg. 'Will you be alright?'

Tadashi ran a hand through his hair and offered her a weak smile. 'Uhh, probably. I think so.'

'You go first then.'

'Why, so you can catch me?'

She rolled her eyes and gestured for him to step forward. He quickly fiddled with the settings on his prosthetic before grabbing the ladder and slowly stepping his way up onto the first couple of rungs.

'You okay?' She called up once he was halfway up.

'NO!'

'Hurry up you big baby.'

Tadashi reached the top and clambered through the open window. Rena cracked her knuckles and began to climb, heart pounding with every creak of the unsteady metal. Eventually, she reached the top and was pulled inside by Tadashi. Her feet landed on the sticky floor and she shuddered.

'Well that's the last time I'm ever doing any kind of physical exercise ever again.'

'Guys!' Brian hissed, 'come on, whilst the coast is still clear!'

Eager to get out of the men's room, Rena quickly stepped past the filthy urinals and walked out into the hallway. They walked down the corridor, not bothering to keep the noise down as the roaring of the crowd on the floor below them was so loud it would have drowned them out anyway. Rena ran her hand along the wall absent-mindedly, disgusted to find that when she pulled it away her fingertips were black.

'This place is disgusting.' She muttered to Tadashi, wrinkling her nose and wiping her hand on her jeans.

Tadashi pulled a face. 'It's a serious health hazard.'

They made their way down a rickety flight of stairs before stopping in front of a large door. Brian laid his hand on it and turned back to look at the two of them.

'Ready? It's not too late to turn back.' He puffed out his chest and stood taller. 'It can be scary for first timers.'

Rena rolled her eyes. 'Get a move on.'

He pushed the door open and Rena stepped through the doorway into a huge room. The first thing that hit her was the smell - if possible, it reeked worse than the toilets. It was like an unpleasant mix of sweat and blood all rolled into one. On the wall furthest away from them was a huge screen, botfighters crowded beneath it.

NEXT MATCH - ZERO VS. YAMA

PLACE BETS NOW

Beneath was a countdown. Four and a half minutes until the start of the match.

'God this place has really upgraded, huh? A screen and everything!' Rena said, nudging Tadashi's side. She turned to Brian, 'why the hell does it say Zero?'

Brian shrugged, 'cause that's what Yama wanted, I guess.'

Tadashi's face was drained of colour. 'Four and a half minutes. We're never gonna find him in time, and the idiot's gonna beat him. Shit.'

Rena's heart leapt into her throat. She hadn't even considered that. 'No, we can find him. Come on.'

She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him along, Brian jogging after them. 'Guys! The ring is beneath the screen there.' He caught up with Rena's strides and pointed towards the mob. 'In the centre there, that's normally where you'll find the fighters. Hiro won't be in the ring - he always appears the last possible minute. Probably so he won't get beaten up. He'll be loitering around somewhere.'

Rena scanned the crowd desperately, but it was no use. Hiro was tiny - there's no way she would be able to spot him in the crowd. Fighters of all shapes and sizes were crammed together, waving bots and wads of money in the air. The noise was unbearable - yells and screams from winners and losers alike and she found herself having to speak louder the closer they got to the ring.

'HEY! What are we gonna do?!' She said loudly, eyes flicking back to the timer. 3 minutes 38 seconds.

Before Brian could say anything, Tadashi dived into the crowd. Rena yelled and tried to grab his sleeve, but within ten seconds he had disappeared into the mass of fighters.

'Brilliant!' She yelled, exasperated. 'Come on, we're gonna have to go after him!'

Brian stared at her and laughed loudly. 'Not a chance!'

'What?! Don't tell me you're scared of them?' She jerked her thumb back to indicate the mass.

'I am! Oh I absolutely am! They'll beat me up if they find out I've been in here again!'

'I have to follow him, and you're coming with me!'

'No I am not - it's your funeral. Adios!' He yelled over the noise, turning on his heel and running away before she could get a chance to stop him.

'COWARD!' She screeched, knowing that he probably didn't even hear her.

She turned back to the mob of people and plunged in, immediately earning an elbow to the head. She pushed past nevertheless, the stink making her eyes water. She could scarcely move, instead relying on the crowd to push her forwards. More than once, she got shouted at by a burly man clutching a robot for being in the way. She pushed past a woman with one eye and caught a glimpse of Tadashi's jacket. She let out a screeching sound and tried to dive for him, accidentally smacking someone in the face.

'WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?' He roared loudly, breath reeking of alcohol. A woman next to him laughed loudly and tried to grab her hair, but Rena managed to twist out of the way just in time. The man swung his fist at her but missed poorly, hitting another man instead. A small brawl broke out, punches and kicks being thrown everywhere she looked. She yelled and dropped to her knees, crawling along the filthy floor and unsuccessfully trying not to gag.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her elbow and she shrieked attempting to bat it away. Someone pulled her to her feet and she was relieved to be met with Tadashi's anxious eyes on her.

'WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR?!' She yelled loudly, smacking him on the arm.

'BECAUSE WE NEED TO FIND HIM!' He yelled back, narrowly missing a swing to the head. 'The HELL is going on?!'

'I started a fight! I think.' Rena replied nervously. Tadashi grabbed her sleeve and they shoved through the mob, no longer caring about being gentle.

'Where's Brian?'

'Ditched us!'

'After all that!'

Suddenly, a loud voice rang out. 'TWO MINUTES UNTIL FIGHT TIME! PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!'

'FUCK!' Tadashi exclaimed loudly, standing on his tiptoes and craning his neck over the crowd. 'It's no use! We're never gonna find him in two minutes!'

'We might if we're closer to the ring!' Rena replied, 'come on!'

She gripped his hand and pulled him along, careful not to accidentally smack anyone this time. As they got closer to the ring, she spotted Yama stood talking to a group of thugs. His immense form towered over everyone else, a menacing looking robot clutched in his ham-like fist. Rena swallowed and pulled her brother along until they were right at the edge of the ring, squeezed together in a corner. Her back was pressed against Tadashi's side and she was uncomfortably close to Yama, but at least she could see what was going on.

Tadashi squeezed her hand and lowered his head until he was speaking next to her ear. 'What are we gonna do?'

Rena watched anxiously as Yama turned and sat down, placing his bot in front of him with a huge clang. He cracked his knuckles and smirked evilly.

'I don't-'

Hiro emerged from the crowd and shook his hair out from his eyes. Rena's heart was hammering in her chest as she stared at him. He didn't look nervous, nor did he look confident. He merely looked bored. He strode over to a tall woman and placed a handsome sum of money on the tray in front of her. The woman slammed the lid down and Hiro strode back over to Yama.

'Scared Zero?'

'You wish.'

'Rena,' Tadashi breathed, 'what the fuck are we gonna do?'

'I have no idea.'

Rena watched in horror as the woman stepped forward with an umbrella. Hiro placed his robot down, a small smirk on his face.

'Fighters ready?'

The room was almost silent, all eyes on the teen and beefy man in the ring.

In one fluid motion, she lifted the umbrella into the air and in the loudest voice Rena had ever heard anyone use-

'FIGHT!'


	18. Chapter 18

The crowd roared, pushing and jostling against one another. Despite almost being knocked off her feet, Rena couldn't tear her eyes away from the fight.

Hiro sat with his back to his siblings, so all Rena could see was Yama's face, screwed up in concentration. The huge man was punching his remote so viciously she was surprised he didn't break it in two. His bot flew across the ring, dodging and attacking so fast she could barely keep up with it.

Yet, Hiro was faster. She hated to admit it, but in that moment she realised why Brian looked up to him. He seemed to anticipate Yama's every move, blocking it before it even happened. It was mesmerising, even for someone who hadn't stepped foot in the ring before.

'What are we gonna do?' Tadashi muttered, so quiet she could barely hear him over the jeering.

'I don't know! He... he might loose?'

But even as she said this, she knew it was never going to be true. Hiro laughed at Yama's face of anger and in one deft move, extended his remote. He sat forwards slightly and his hands flew across the remote. His bot wrapped around Yama's and in under ten seconds had removed one of its arms.

'What can I say Yama,' he said smugly, 'that move never fails!'

Yama gave a yell of fury and his bot slashed at Hiro's. It cut the head of it off but no sooner had this happened when the bot collapsed and the head re-attached itself.

Hiro yawned. 'Pathetic.'

Tadashi had his hands over his eyes, 'will he STOP taunting him?! Jesus Christ!'

Yama's bot swung for Hiro's and toppled over. The crowd jeered at Yama and his face turned beet red as he desperately tried to right it. Unfortunately for him, it was no use and within mere seconds Hiro's bot had swarmed on it. Rena watched in horror as Megabot finished off Yama's robot, reducing it to a pile of scraps.

Hiro sat back and cracked his knuckles as the crowd roared. 'Thanks Yama.' He grinned. He stood and grabbed his bot, shoving it into his pocket. 'That was fun! Re-match? Same time next week?'

Yama was quivering. A bomb about to explode, and the whole room sensed it.

'Let's get out of here.' A man next to Rena said to his friends as they turned and pushed their way through the crowd. He wasn't the only one; everyone was scrambling for the exits or desperately trying to grab their winnings before all hell broke loose.

Rena could sense it, and she was filled with terror for what was about to happen.

'I'll just take my winnings and go then!' Hiro said brightly, stepping past Yama and heading towards the woman.

'Not so fast, Zero.' Yama said, his voice dangerously low.

Rena stumbled backwards, crashing into Tadashi. The crowd was thinning rapidly, soon they would be the only ones left.

'Come on Yama! You said you'd play fair this time! No one likes a sore loser.'

Tadashi pointed to a group of scary looking men approaching the ring, the only people in the room not running away from it. 'Yama's gang.' He whispered, voice shaking with fear.

Yama's fist slammed into Hiro's stomach, sending him flying backwards. Rena bit down a yell.

'They can't know we're here! Tadashi, we need to hide!'

'No! We can't leave him!' Tadashi protested tearfully.

Rena grabbed a handful of his jacket and pulled him towards her. 'Listen, idiot. They know we're here, we're only endangering ourselves as well as him. We need to get back and form a plan.'

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back, stumbling in her haste to get away from the scene.

'Yama, let's talk about this like civilised adults.' Hiro said in the background.

'Why do that when the other option is so much more fun?!'

Rena didn't look back, knowing that if she did she wouldn't be able to resist running back to help him. Her eyes darted around the huge room until they landed on a huge metal door. She pulled Tadashi towards it, shoving roughly past the few stragglers that were left. They reached the door and she threw her shoulder against it, revealing a cleaning cupboard. She pulled her brother inside and slammed it shut. He collapsed on a mop bucket, head in his hands. Rena leant against a wall, a broom shoving uncomfortably against her back.

'Okay. Plan. Now.'

'We need to get back out there.' Tadashi replied, 'like, now.'

'Don't be stupid. I've already said, we can't. Now get a grip and help me come up with some kind of plan!'

Tadashi shook his head. 'You don't even care, do you? They'll kill him, and you want us to sit here and come up with a battle plan.'

Rena stared at him in disbelief. 'Fine then! Go out there, and get beaten to a pulp next to him. Fat lot of help you'd be.'

He didn't reply. Rena rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out her pocket. 'I'm calling the group chat. Unless you have any smarter ideas?'

'Don't get them involved!'

'Then what do you suggest we do?!'

Tadashi opened his mouth to respond when a guttering scream ripped through the air. His face drained of colour and Rena nearly dropped her phone, her heart hammering in her chest.

'What the fuck are they doing?' Tadashi whispered in horror.

Rena's hands were shaking as she clicked the green call icon. She brought it up to her ear, expecting an answer within seconds. Instead, nothing. The phone ran through and she let out a groan of frustration as she shoved it back into her pocket.

'No answer. We can't stick around here and wait.'

'So what do you suggest we actually do then?'

'A distraction.'

Tadashi nodded and stood, pacing feverishly up and down in the three feet of space they had. 'The hall's empty by now, if the rate at which people were leaving stayed constant... we just need to keep Yama distracted for long enough.'

'What about his cronies?'

'He'll send them to do the dirty work. If we go out there, it'll be those guys going after us.'

'Yeah. You're right. We can't both go out, one of us needs to sneak around and grab Hiro.'

They looked at each other.

'I'll be the distraction.' They said at the same time.

'The distraction is more likely to be caught Tadashi, I'm better in a fight.'

'No. I'm going.'

'I-'

'You can't change my mind on this. I'll distract them, you grab Hiro.'

'But-'

Before Rena could finish her sentence, Tadashi opened the door and slipped out into the hall. Rena pressed her ear against it but the wood was too thick to hear anything aside from general shouts.

'Bastard!' She muttered angrily, kicking a wet floor sign and sending it skidding across the room. It landed next to a box of cleaning equipment and she dove down next to it, scavenging through for anything useful. She shoved a random bottle of bleach into her pocket and a roll of bandages, praying she wouldn't have to use either.

Rena stood and walked over to the door, cranking it open a tiny bit. Thankfully, it was positioned just behind a beam so Yama couldn't see her. Tadashi was stood in the middle of the room, desperately trying to bargain with Yama. Rena resisted the temptation to scoff. Of course bargaining was never going to work, the idiot.

She craned her neck around the corner for a glimpse of Hiro. He was on the floor behind Yama, curled into a ball and lying still on the ground. Her heart leapt into her throat. She had to move, and fast.

She slipped out and pressed her back to the wall, waving frantically to Tadashi. He seemed to notice and slowly circled around until Yama's cronies had their backs to him. She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly began to make her way towards Hiro.

'Isn't it a bit weak to be beating up a fourteen year old though?' Tadashi yelled across the room. Rena held her breath as Yama's cronies stepped towards him, cracking their knuckles. She let it out again when Yama roared at them to stop and stepped towards Tadashi himself.

'How dare you speak to Yama like that?! Who even are you?!'

'Oh.. no one you'll know.' Tadashi replied confidentially. Of course this last bit was a lie, Rena knew full well he was beyond terrified.

'You have a lot of nerve showing up here kid.' Yama spat.

Rena seized the opportunity and ran towards Hiro. Yama and his gang were completely distracted by Tadashi (who was now teaching them enthusiastically about robotics) and did not notice her pelting it across the ginormous hall.

She dived to her knees and gently grabbed his side.

'Leave me alone.' He muttered quietly.

'No, no I'm not gonna hurt you.' She whispered softly, 'it's me.'

Hiro opened his eyes and gasped, panic flaring in his eyes. 'Rena! I- how? What? Why-'

'Shush!' Rena whispered urgently, turning around to see if Yama had spotted them. Thankfully, he was still being lectured by her older brother. 'Are you okay? What was the screaming for? What did they do to you?'

'I'm fine!' He replied, 'now get out of here! It's dangerous.'

'Don't even start that. Can you sit up?' She hauled him up slowly, wary of both his injuries and the fact that Yama could turn around any second and spot them.

'Honestly I'm fine!' As he said this, Rena pulled his arm over her shoulder and her hand brushed against a dark patch on his side.

'Try TELLING me next time!' She hissed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the role of bandages.

'Rena, it's literally a scratch. Don't waste time bandaging it!' Hiro whispered, annoyed.

'You're hurt-'

'Yeah I know, but I'll deal with it. Please, I don't want anyone else to get hurt.'

Rena sighed. 'Fine. Can you walk?'

'...Probably?'

She sighed and hoisted him onto her back with some difficulty. The wet patch of blood was warm against her back and she grimaced. She looked over at Tadashi nervously, increasingly aware of how close he was to gaining some injuries of his own.

'Okay, we're gonna get you to Baymax-'

Suddenly, the door flew open. Everyone in the room turned to the direction of the loud noise and then a lot of things happened at once.

Gogo, Wasabi and Honey Lemon were standing there in the doorframe. Not only that, but they were in full superhero gear. Rena gave a loud whoop and Hiro cheered loudly. Yama gave a roar of fury and Tadashi yelled as one of the cronies seized the distraction to kick him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Another one of Yama's men spotted Rena and yelled 'THE BOY!' just as Rena was trying to get away. Honey Lemon ran forwards, an orange ball in hand. She threw it at Yama's gang and two of them were trapped in sticky orange goo.

Yama charged straight for Rena, the rest of them were pre-occupied with the sudden appearance of geared up teenagers. Gogo and Wasabi were back to back, each fighting two thugs. Honey Lemon was darting around the place, throwing chemicals and smoke bombs into the air.

Rena staggered back and Hiro slid off, leaning against the wall and panting. She stood in front of him protectively, her hand closed tightly around the bottle of bleach she had managed to grab from the cupboard. Yama stopped in front of her and laughed.

'You think you can stop me, little girl?! That boy is an enemy to more than just me you know!'

She was so distracted by this last fact that she didn't even think to be angry about the fact that Yama had just called her a little girl. 'What? Who?'

Yama threw his head back and laughed. 'I know who you are! Your entire family is worth a lot of money to me...'

Rena stared at him in shock. The death threats. She knew it all linked back to botfighting! 'Wrong family buddy, sorry!'

Yama swung at her. Rena ducked just in time, although she wasn't quick enough for the well-aimed kick that Yama aimed straight at her face. She fell back onto her hands and knees, spitting blood and a chipped tooth onto the floor.

Yama roared with malicious laughter and stepped past her. 'Zero! You can't run from Yama! NO ONE embarrasses me like that!'

Rena twisted around and grabbed his leg, pulling with all her might. Yama fell to the side, momentarily distracted. Hiro scrambled away and ran back towards his friends. Yama shook her off quickly and Rena rolled onto her back, staring up at his giant form looming above her. He raised his foot, ready to slam it down onto her face. Rena closed her eyes, bracing for the impact-

But it never came. Luckily for her, Baymax's rocket fist came through the wall and the explosion sent Yama off his feet. Rena sat up, coughing in the dust yet laughing like a maniac.

'FRED!' Gogo yelled, 'what was wrong with the door?!'

'This is infinitely more cool!' Fred shouted victoriously. He jumped over to Rena and pulled her to her feet.

'FRED!' She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the ridiculous suit. 'Oh man I'm so glad to see you guys! We were FUCKED!'

Fred laughed as Baymax came slowly over.

'Hello Rena, do you need any medical assistance?'

'Oh man!' Rena slapped a hand to her head. 'Hiro! Hiro does!'

Yama stirred, shouting about revenge. Fred took this as his cue to leave, and jumped away to distract the man.

Rena tore through the chaos, searching for her brother. He was collapsed against the wall, holding his side with his head bowed low. She made a beeline for him, almost being sliced in half by Wasabi's blades.

'Hiro!' She yelled, adrenaline coursing through her.

He looked up, tears in his eyes. Straightening out his arms, he stepped towards her and his legs folded beneath him. Rena dived forward and caught him, hugging him tightly. 'I knew it was bad! You dickhead!'

'Yeah well...' Hiro said faintly.

Baymax came wandering over. 'Hello Hiro, on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain?'

Hiro stared at him. '7. Wait... Am I... am I hallucinating? How much blood have I lost?' He said weakly.

'No! We finished him at SFIT.' Rena said, 'but that doesn't matter!'

Baymax leant forwards and scooped Hiro up. 'My sensors detect a puncture wound on your right hand side. You need my care now.'

'You were STABBED?!' Rena screeched, eyes alit with fury. 'And you just thought not to say anything! I- Baymax! Go outside away from here and treat him!'

Baymax waddled away out of the open door, leaving Rena alone and exposed in the midst of whatever was going on. A pained shout filled the air and she whirled around to see Tadashi on the floor, backing desperately away from one of Yama's men. The sight filled her with fury - the man was holding Tadashi's bionic leg and was waving it over his head. She charged towards him, grabbing the bleach from her bottle and twisting the lid off as she ran towards him. The guy waved the leg above his head, about to bring it down on Tadashi.

'HEY! DICKHEAD!' Rena screeched. The man turned towards her and she dived towards him, squeezing the bottle and sending a stream of citrus bleach straight towards his face. He let out a scream of pain and dropped to his knees, the leg landing next to him on the floor. Rena seized it and threw it to Tadashi, giving the guy one last kick before kneeling on the floor next to her brother.

'Was that BLEACH?' Tadashi asked loudly, eyes wide.

'Yes! He deserved it! The fuck did he do, tear it off you?'

Tadashi winced. 'Yeah. Pretty much.'

He attached it in lightning speed. Rena helped him to his feet with some difficulty, but eventually they were both standing upright. The fight was drawing to a close, Honey Lemon had managed to trap all the gang in her wonderful chemical inventions. The only person left standing was Yama.

'WAIT!' Rena shouted. She jogged over to her friends and stared Yama down. 'Honey, trap him against the wall, but make sure he can still talk!'

Honey Lemon did as she was told, much to Yama's protests. Rena stood opposite the giant man, her arms crossed.

'Now.. Yama. You're going to tell me exactly what is going on here.'


	19. Chapter 19

Caine sat opposite his boss. His hands were sweating and his heart was racing as it always was when Fournier came to summon him.

'Boy, do you understand what we are doing here?'

Caine shifted in his seat slightly, staring fixedly at a spot on the wall above Jason's head. 'We're uh.. we're getting revenge, Sir.'

'Indeed. But do you understand why? It is of paramount importance that you understand why.'

Caine stayed silent, his mind racing. He could feel the blood running down his face, the cold of the night. He could see the kid's terrified face, and the angry eyes of his boss. He heard the sound of the knife finding a home in Marissa's chest, the screams of Jason.

The memory filled him with sadness. He liked Marissa - everyone did. She brought out the human side in Jason. She made him seem like he had a heart. It was one of the reason Caine was so absorbed in the botfighting scene. It was scary, sure. But it was amazing. He had the time of his life! Besides, where was the fun without any risk? Jason Fournier laughed when he was with her, everyone did. She was that kind of person. Funny, charming. But scary when she wanted to be. Jason and Marissa were perfect for each other, everyone knew it.

Jason hadn't laughed since.

The man fixed him with a long, hard stare before continuing. 'That boy took everything from me. The night he beat me at that fight. The night her life ended. You understand me? He. Took. Everything. My love. My joy. My unborn child.'

'Yes.. yes Sir, I understand.'

'Now I'm taking everything from him.' He chuckled darkly before continuing. 'So far, we've broken into his home and poisoned his sister. Some may say that is excessive. I disagree. It's not nearly enough. Now we move onto the final part of the plan. You must swear to me that what I am about to discuss with you never leaves this room. Or I will be forced to kill you. I can't say I'll enjoy it, but I will do it. You understand?'

Caine nodded feverishly, too afraid to say anything. His mind was racing. What was his boss planning? What was going to happen to Hiro? Tadashi? Rena? He felt a stab of pain at that last name. He wasn't supposed to get attached. That was the one rule. Don't get attached to the enemy. So why was he filled with a devastating guilt every time he remembered the time he poisoned her? Why did the idea of Fournier hurting her, or any of her family, make him angry? He wasn't attached. And yet...

'I have enlisted Yama.' Jason said, snapping Caine out of his daydream. 'He's a brainless oaf, but we need him. The kid gets back into botfighting, and we can lure his stupid family there to save him. Then... we can execute project 412.'

He placed a key into the draw under his desk, slowly turning it. He brought out a small black box onto the desk and flicked it open, revealing a luminescent green orb.

'Meet project 412.' Jason grinned, 'the thing going to destroy Hiro Hamada.'

Rena stood opposite Yama. He was encased in a bright orange casing of Honey Lemon's invention. He was struggling against his bounds and his eyes were full of murder.

'Let me go! You have no idea what you're doing!'

'Oh, don't worry. I know exactly what I'm doing.' Rena replies, smiling sweetly at him. 'As I've already said, you're going to tell me exactly what's going on. I can wait here all night, just tell me when you're ready.'

The room was silent. Wasabi, Fred, Gogo and Honey Lemon stared at their friend in disbelief. None of them had any idea what was going on, only that they had received a distress signal from Baymax and had rushed to the abandoned building, only to find a dozen botfighters and their friends trying to escape.

Yama stared at the determined teenager in front of him. 'Zero beat me. Nobody beats Yama. He needed to be taught a lesson.'

The friends connected the dots instantly. Hiro had been botfighting, of course.

Rena shook her head. 'Yes Yama, I am aware. But you said his entire family was worth a lot of money. What did you mean by that exactly?'

'Hamada has a lot of enemies wanting revenge.'

Rena sighed. Her friends were staring between the two, their eyes wide open. Tadashi was leaning against the rope of the ring, his head bowed. Hiro was outside with Baymax, and she was glad he wasn't here to hear all of this. 'For what? Beating them at botfighting?'

'It's a dangerous scene.' Yama shrugged.

'Who exactly?'

Yama shook his head. 'Yama don't give out no names. All I can say is that the kid is wanted dead by many people. It's his own fault.'

Rena nodded, pacing back and fourth. 'So, that's it then? That's all you know?'

'No. But it's all I can tell you.'

Rena looked at her friends. 'Guys... I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.'

'Don't be sorry.' Gogo said, walking over to Rena. 'You know we'd do anything for you guys, all three of you.'

'Why are you sorry?! We got to get the superhero gear out again! Best day EVER!'

Wasabi stared at Fred. 'Read the room.'

Honey Lemon ran over to Rena and hugged her tightly. 'We'll get through this together, okay?'

'We should probably get out of here though.' Wasabi added nervously, 'uhh... we called the cops.'

Yama cried out furiously, struggling against his binds. 'HEY! LET ME GO! I'LL KILL YOU!'

Rena looked at him and let out an empty laugh. 'Okay big guy.'

'Yeah, let's go.' Gogo said.

They all started walking towards the door when Rena noticed Tadashi wasn't with them. 'I'll be out in a minute.' She whispered to Honey Lemon, who nodded.

Rena walked back over to Tadashi and kicked him lightly in the shin. 'Hey. Bonehead. Cops are on the way, we need to go.'

Tadashi looked up at her, his eyes bloodshot and weary. He scratched his neck, a look of grave concern etched across his face. 'Y-yeah. Okay.'

Rena pulled him to his feet. 'You okay there?'

Tadashi blinked. 'Hmm? Oh. No, I'm good. Just... neck hurts a little is all.'

'Come on, let's get out of here so we can go yell at Hiro.'

Tadashi didn't smile back at her. 'Yeah. Hiro...'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!! Just saying hello tbh. Hope everyone's good and enjoying the story so far! :)


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hi howdy friends hope we're all happy and healthy. we're nearing the end now - but not necessarily the end of their story altogether, simply the end of this one. maybe i'll do a high school mini story or another one based off the series. wherever it takes me. anyway, enjoy :) (TW in this chapter for bullying/bad mental health/suicide. please don't read on if this affects you badly 3)
> 
> Helplines;
> 
> UK - 116 123
> 
> USA - 1-800-784-8433
> 
> France - 01-45-39-4000
> 
> Belgium - 106
> 
> Denmark - 70-201-201
> 
> Spain - 91-459-00-50
> 
> Please don't suffer in silence

Half an hour later, they were all in Fred's room. Hiro was lying unconscious on one of Fred's many couches, the rest of them were sat in an awkward circle together.

Rena was sat in the middle of Tadashi and Honey Lemon on the couch. Gogo was kneeling on the floor, Wasabi sat on a footstool next to her. Fred was sitting upside down in a chair, the only one of them who seemed to be not at all bothered by the situation at hand.

'Look guys, all I'm saying is that there's no need to worry! We're superheroes! We can handle anything!' He said casually, examining his fingernails.

'Fred!' Gogo snapped, 'that's not the point! We want to be in a position that we don't need to be saving anyone's life every other week!'

'Superhero gear isn't going to stop Hiro from botfighting.' Tadashi sighed, leaning his head on his sister's shoulder.

Rena nodded in agreement. 'Before we even consider what Yama said about these so called 'enemies' of his, we need to come up with a plan to get him to stop botfighting in the first place. It's dangerous, and he's only going to make things worse for himself.'

Wasabi sighed. 'So... what do we do then?'

'Well... we need to figure out the root cause, right?' Honey Lemon said, 'if we figure that out, then we can think of a way to stop it.'

Gogo looked at the pair of Hamada's. 'Do you know why he started botfighting?'

Rena and Tadashi exchanged a look. They knew exactly why.

'It's uh... it's a bit of a long story.' Tadashi said sheepishly, scratching his neck and frowning.

Rena sighed. To say it was a long story was an understatement. She glanced over at Hiro. Baymax was stood over him and working away quietly, and the sight brought her comfort. At least he was in safe hands.

She turned back to her friends' expectant faces. 'Uh... yeah. Long story. Probably... not the best if we do umm... share...'

Gogo shrugged and folded her arms. 'We're here and we have the time to hear it.'

'If you wanna tell us, that is.' Honey Lemon said, grabbing Rena's hand and squeezing it tightly.

Rena looked at Tadashi. His mouth was pulled in a thin, straight line but he nodded his head slightly, clearly not eager to tell it himself. She took in a deep breath.

'Well, it's about time you knew anyway. You probably would've found out anyway.'

Gogo and Wasabi exchanged a worried glance. 'What are you talking about?' Wasabi asked quietly.

Rena pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin them. She absentmindedly pulled at a thin thread on her jeans. 'So, Hiro joined high school at the age of nine. You know that. He was so excited. Do you remember his first day?' She said, nudging Tadashi.

Tadashi smiled warmly. 'Yeah. He was so excited, he could barely sit still long enough to get his seatbelt on in the car.'

Honey Lemon smiled. 'I can imagine.'

Rena nodded. 'Yeah, so picture this. Tiny kid, massive nerd. He could outperform kids five years older than him without even trying. So what do you think happens next? They give him shit for it.' She paused, clearing her throat. 'They uh... yeah. They gave him a lot of shit for it. And the thing is... we didn't notice. Not for a while, anyway. These kids were ruthless. Made him do their homework, and when they didn't get a grade high enough they'd beat him up. All that excitement? It had gone within weeks. And we never noticed. Hiro... he tried to keep it hidden. Didn't want to worry us. Didn't want to look as weak as they were telling him we was, I guess.'

Honey Lemon sniffed, tears forming in her eyes. 'That's so... wow. I had no idea.'

'Kids are dicks.' Gogo said, shaking her head.

Rena nodded. 'Yeah, well.' She sighed and a long time passed before she spoke again. 'It went on for ages. Towards the end, we sort of had an idea of what was going, but we didn't quite know the extent of it. Not until umm... not until...' Her voice faded into silence. She glanced at Tadashi but he didn't seem to notice, instead he was staring up at the ceiling as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. She pretended not to notice how his hands were shaking slightly. She cleared her throat. 'We never knew until he tried to kill himself when he was 13.'

Tadashi closed his eyes, a single tear running down his cheek. He wasn't the only one. Honey Lemon was sat with her hands to her mouth, tears running freely down her face. Wasabi's eyes were wide with shock. Fred had fallen off his chair. Gogo was sat with her hands balled into fists, her face pure white.

Nobody said a word, so Rena took this as her cue to continue. 'It was... yeah. Not great. He was in hospital for a while. Word spread fast, and soon enough we knew exactly who the bullies were. There was this one guy, Chad. He was like, the ringleader of it all.' She looked down at her hands, a white scar shining out on her left hand. Almost gone, but it was still a prominent reminder. 'I went after him. I wasn't going to, but like... he was the biggest piece of shit. I uh.. I hurt him pretty bad. Probably would've got expelled if it weren't for Tadashi.'

Tadashi nodded. 'I thought you were gonna kill him.' He dried his eyes on his sleeve and sighed, opening his eyes and looking at her for the first time. 'You were quite scary.'

Rena shrugged. 'He deserved it!'

'What exactly did you do?' Wasabi asked, looking a little afraid.

'Broke a few bones. Nothing MAJOR though... just like... his arm, nose.. maybe a rib or two? Really, the details are hazy.'

'He started botfighting pretty soon after.' Tadashi said, 'we knew from the start what he was doing, although neither of us had any idea how dangerous it was. He enjoyed doing it, and he seemed happy. That seemed like good enough reason to let him keep going. But... towards the end of high school, I think he started getting a little more involved with it. Like, he'd gotten really good and was starting to beat people. So people got angry at him.'

Rena nodded. 'He sneaked in once with a broken nose and two hundred dollars in cash. That was when we first realised what he was doing.'

'He got thrown in jail for the first time a week before he graduated. He still got his diploma though, so there's that at least.' Tadashi added.

'So he used it as a coping mechanism?' Wasabi summarised, 'that actually... yeah that makes sense.'

Rena nodded. 'Pretty much. We were a bit reluctant to get him to stop botfighting at first though, because at least getting thrown in jail was better than the alternative.'

Gogo nodded, her hands clasped together in front of her face. 'Yeah... okay. So, he just needs an alternative thing to do. Something that can distract him, something that's exciting and not dangerous.'

'Well, that's obvious.' Fred said from the floor, 'we get the gear out, and we do night patrols! See, I've been saying all along that being superheroes would be amazing!'

'Did you hear the part about it not being dangerous?' Tadashi asked, exasperated.

'No but...' Gogo leant forwards and picked up her helmet, running her hand across the smooth surface. 'That's not... that's not actually a bad idea Fred.'

'I mean, we do need a distraction for him.' Honey Lemon said, nodding in agreement with Gogo.

'If we just did night patrol, it wouldn't necessarily mean anything dangerous.' Wasabi said.

'I'm actually warming up to it.' Rena said, 'I mean, if a couple of us go every night... and Hiro goes on Baymax, what's the worse that could happen?'

'Many things could happen!' Tadashi exclaimed, exasperated. 'But... I guess you're right. It's better than botfighting. Anything is.' His eyes drifted over to his brother, still asleep on the couch.

Baymax looked over at them all sat together. 'Hello!' He said, waving his hand.

Rena stood up and stretched, turning towards Baymax. 'How's he doing?' She asked.

'My scan indicates that Hiro will make a full recovery with plenty of rest.'

'Good.' She stepped over Fred and walked towards Baymax, leaning on the edge of the couch next to Hiro. 'Thank you Baymax.'

'I am a healthcare companion. It is my duty to help my patient.'

'I know that. But still. Thanks.'

Tadashi limped over to them and smiled slightly. 'Night patrol it is. Let's pray it works.'

'It will.' She said, looking down at Hiro. 'I've not lost faith in him yet.'

'What are we going to tell him when he wakes up?'

'Well, I'm just going to tell him I love him. Then, I'm gonna kill him.'

Tadashi grinned. 'Fair.'

All of a sudden, his grin quickly slid off his face. He squeezed his eyes shut and his hand shot up to the back of his neck, the same place that had been annoying him all night with a constant pain that refused to cease.

Rena blinked. 'Uhh... you alright there?'

Tadashi raised his head, his eyes darting around the room. 'No... no I'm... good. Headache.'

Baymax handed him a pill. 'I recommend a dose of paracetamol for headaches.'

Tadashi took the pill and swallowed it, wincing. 'That was... weird.' His eyes were dilated and his breathing was rapid.

Rena was about to say something when Hiro stirred. She stood up as he awoke, yawning and sitting up. He adjusted himself and looked up, blinking at the two of his siblings.

'Hello.' He said hesitantly, wincing. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. 'How long have I been out?'

Rena shrugged, sitting down next to him. 'Like... an hour? Maybe two? Honestly not that long at all.'

Hiro nodded and sighed. 'I don't know what to say.' He whispered.

Then something very unexpected happened.

Tadashi staggered backwards. Baymax caught him, helping him back to feet gently.

'Are you alright? I will scan you now.'

Tadashi pushed the robot roughly out the way, swearing loudly. He angrily stormed forwards until he was towering above his brother. Hiro stared at him, eyes wide and face white as Tadashi lowered his face down until it was inches away from his little brother.

'You,' Tadashi hissed, 'are a pathetic, snivelling, piece of SHIT.'

Rena immediately jumped to her feet, staring at Tadashi in shock. 'What the fuck did you just say?!' She exclaimed in disbelief.

Tadashi ignored her. 'Do you know what you've done?!' He shouted, spit flying everywhere and his eyes wide with fury. 'You're a waste of oxygen! You know that, don't you?'

Hiro stared up at his brother, his entire body trembling like a leaf. 'T..Tadashi?' He breathed, voice shaking. 'Wh- I don't... I don't understand..'

'Of course you wouldn't! Because you're a fucking idiot! Honestly, your stupidity shocks me sometimes!'

Rena grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away from Hiro, but Tadashi slapped her away cruelly. 'Hands off! He needs to hear this - he's needed to hear this for a long time!'

'What the hell is wrong with you?!' Rena shouted, her mind racing. Five minutes ago, Tadashi was fine. Now this? This was so uncharacteristic of him, never in a million years would he ever lash out at Hiro like this.

Gogo was suddenly at her side, her face full of fury. 'Tadashi! Mate, what are you doing?!'

Tadashi ignored them. He grabbed Hiro's wrist and pulled him roughly to his feet. The latter cried out in pain, his hand going to his side where there was a bandage wrapped carefully around him.

'Oh shut up, act like a man!' Tadashi laughed, ' pathetic!'

'TADASHI!' Honey Lemon yelled, 'stop it!'

'Yeah man, not cool!' Fred added.

Rena grabbed Tadashi's wrist again. 'I don't know what you're doing, but stop it right this second.' She hissed, her voice dangerously low.

'No.' Tadashi said simply. 'I'll kill him.'

Hiro was leaning on the back of the couch for support, looking as though he was moments away from passing out. 'What's wrong with him? What did I miss?'

'What's wrong with ME?!' Tadashi yelled in fury. Before Rena could do anything, he launched himself at Hiro. They fell to the floor, wrestling on the ground.

Honey Lemon screamed. Hiro shrieked with pain, Tadashi in anger. Fred was swearing loudly and Wasabi had jumped backwards, hands over his face in fear.

Rena and Gogo dove forwards and grabbed one of Tadashi's arms each. Tadashi yelled out in fury, kicking with all his might at Hiro.

'A bit of help here please!' Rena shouted over the chaos.

Wasabi materialised next to Rena and helped to restrain Tadashi whilst Honey Lemon and Fred grabbed Hiro's shoulders and pulled him away from Tadashi. Baymax picked Hiro up gently and carried him away, leaving the rest of them to deal with Tadashi, who was acting like an angry toddler.

'Gogo, Wasabi, go with the others and take Hiro out of the room.' Rena yelled.

'Are you sure?!'

'Yeah, I got him!'

Reluctantly, Gogo dropped Tadashi's arm and pulled Wasabi away. They hurried out the room, slamming the door behind them.

Tadashi stood up, looking feral. 'He deserved that.' He spat cruelly.

Rena felt like throwing up. 'What the FUCK is wrong with you?!' She shrieked.

His fist connected with her face and she felt a nasty crack. She cried out and staggered back, her back smacking against the wall. Blood was flowing thickly from her nose, the smell made her stomach turn. She dabbed at it with her sleeve, attempting to stop the flow.

Tadashi was on the floor. In an instant, all anger had completely disappeared.

Rena hesitantly walked over to him and crouched on the floor, afraid that if she let her guard down he would swing again.

'That.' She said quietly, 'was the most despicable thing you've ever done. I can't believe you.' She had a lot more to say, but her mind was still reeling. That had all happened so quickly.

Tadashi was almost hyperventilating. His hands were shaking ten times worse than before. 'That wasn't... that wasn't me!' He gasped. He brought his hands up to his face and let out a guttering sob. 'That wasn't me! That wasn't me!' He repeated, rocking back and fourth. 'I don't.. oh god... what the hell? That wasn't me! That wasn't!'

Rena blinked back tears. 'Then who was it?! Asshole!' She hissed, 'that's going to fuck with him so bad, do you even realise what you've done? I can't... oh my god!'

Tadashi shook his head. 'No! I! Rena... Rena please. Would I ever do that? I can't... I can't breathe.. I can't.. think... what.. the fuck?' He gasped.

'You have some serious apologising to do.' She said. Then, she sighed and shifted towards him, wrapping her arms around him. Tadashi collapsed into her, crying his eyes out. Rena hugged him tightly. 'Calm down. Breathe.'

'He... he hates me. You... you hate me.'

She sighed deeply. 'No... not hate. He won't either. Just... wow. I don't know what to think. That was... scary.'

'That wasn't me...'

'No, it was. Now you're going to compose yourself, and you're going to apologise to the kid you've just traumatised. Then I'm going to kill you.'

'I don't know what happened. I don't even... it was like a switch went off in my head.'

'Well then you need therapy.'

'Rude.'

'Yeah well, you're a prick.'

Tadashi pulled away from her. 'Please believe me Rena. I wouldn't do that. I would never.'

'Then what happened?'

'I... I don't know.'

'Then you had better come up with a fucking good excuse.' Rena said, standing and brushing herself off. She wiped her nose again. 'Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find a tissue.'

She turned to leave, leaving her brother alone on the floor.

'I love you.' He whispered.

His only response was the slam of the door behind her.


	21. Chapter 21

'Anyone have a tissue?' Rena asked, stumbling into the kitchen. The house was so huge, she'd been wandering around for ages trying to find her friends and not drop blood all over the expensive carpet. Eventually, though, she'd heard the sounds of voices coming from a room she had walked past twice beforehand.

Immediately, everyone turned to stare at her. She gave a half-hearted wave, fully aware of the fact that the situation seemed a whole lot worse than it was seeing as she was covered in her own blood. Baymax appeared by her side with a box of tissues and she grabbed it gratefully.

'I will scan you now. Scan complete. You have abstained a nasal fracture. Recommended treatment would be plenty of ice.' Baymax said.

'Mmmm.' Rena agreed, sinking down on one of the many chairs in the room next to Honey Lemon.

Honey Lemon put her arm around her friend. 'What happened?'

'He punched me.' She replied softly, 'he actually... wow.'

'What the fuck even happened there?' Gogo said angrily.

'I don't know.' Rena shrugged, 'I don't... yeah. Jesus.' She wiped away the last of the blood and sighed. 'I didn't know he could hit that hard actually.'

'I bet something else was going on there.' Fred said darkly.

'Like what?'

'MIND CONTROL!' He exclaimed, waving his hands around his face.

Wasabi rolled his eyes. 'We're not living in a comic Fred, give it up.'

'Yeah, that's definitely not happened.' Gogo said, shaking her head. 'Come on Fred, read the room.'

'Where's Tadashi?' Asked Honey Lemon.

'Still in the room. I kinda uhh... left him crying on the floor.'

'As he deserves!' Gogo spat.

'What did he even say?' Wasabi said, 'did he have an excuse?'

'Not... really? He said it wasn't him but... it was so..'

Rena looked up and surveyed the room. 'Hang on, where's Hiro?'

'He went to the bathroom.' Honey Lemon replied.

Rena sighed and stood up, the chair dragging across the floor. 'I'm gonna go find him. Was he okay?'

No one said anything in response.

'Brilliant!' Rena muttered to herself, kicking the door on her way out. 'Don't even know where the fucking bathroom even is!'

Her entire face was throbbing and she tried to ignore it as she ran down the long halls. She dragged her hand along the wall and forced down a scream. Why did everything always have to go so wrong? What had happened to Tadashi? Would he do that again? What was going through Hiro's head? Was he hurt? Would her nose ever heal, or would she have to go the rest of her life with a bent ass nose thanks to her brother?

She stopped outside a door with a lock beneath the handle. Bathroom, obviously. Cautiously, she reached out and rapped her knuckles against the wood. 'Can I come in?'

Hiro didn't answer. She tried the handle: locked.

'I know you're in there and I will not hesitate to kick this door down. But it's probably expensive so like... please don't make me do that.'

The lock clicked open and Rena breathed a sigh of relief. That went easier than expected.

She opened the door slowly and was greeted by the sight of Hiro sat on the floor. 'I was wondering why your voice sounded like that.' He said as he caught a glimpse of her face, 'that's unfortunate.'

Rena walked over and sat on the floor next to him. 'Thank you that's very kind.' She replied sarcastically.

Hiro shifted uncomfortably. 'I didn't know he could hit that hard.' He said quietly.

'Funnily enough, that's exactly what I said. Are you okay?'

He gave a shaky laugh. 'Define okay?'

Rena put an arm around him. Already, tears were burning in her eyes. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know he'd do that, otherwise, I would've stopped him before he had a chance to hurt you.'

'It's not your fault. It's mine.' Hiro replied miserably, 'and he was right.'

'No, don't listen to him, alright? Don't listen to any of that.' She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, 'none of that is true.'

'You're just saying that cause you feel like you have to. It doesn't count.'

'I'm saying it because I'm your sister and I know you better than anyone. It should count the most because it's coming from me.'

Hiro sighed. 'Yeah, whatever.'

'I'm serious! Every single word of what Tadashi just said is false. Every word. He doesn't believe it either, you know that right?'

'Then why'd he say it?!' Hiro exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically 'seriously! Where did that even come from? How long has he felt like that?'

Rena grabbed his hand and squeezed it. 'He doesn't feel like that. He never has! Trust me. This is TADASHI we're talking about!'

'Where's your evidence? Rena - he punched you in the face! He tried to... I don't know... kill me? What do you think would have happened if you weren't there?'

She fell quiet, tears finally escaping. 'I know him.' She whispered, 'better than anyone. And he would never - NEVER - do that to you.'

'But he did.' Hiro muttered, balling his hands into fists.

Rena shook her head. 'He did. And I'm... furious with him. Believe me, I am. But.. there has to be some reason he did... that. He wouldn't just do it out of the blue, would he?'

'What's the explanation then?'

'I don't know!'

Rena stood up and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. There was one thing she knew for certain - she could sit around crying all day, or she could get up and get to the bottom of why Tadashi had attacked Hiro. 'Come on.'

'Where we going?'

'To Tadashi!'

Hiro flinched. 'Are... are you sure?'

'I'll make Baymax sit outside with a sedative on hand for him,' she replied. Rena extended her hand out towards him, 'you coming?'

Hiro sighed. '...Okay.'

He grabbed her hand and she gingerly pulled him to his feet.

'Did he hurt you?' Rena asked, noticing how his face screwed up in pain when he stood.

'Might have messed up a couple of stitches...' Hiro said, gritting his teeth. 'But it's fine. I'm fine!'

She narrowed her eyes. 'I'll take your word, but if you like... pass out or something I'm kicking you both out of the house.'

'Noted.'  
\----------------  
'Baymax, you stay out here.' Rena said, addressing the robot. She turned to Hiro and said 'I'll just go in and uh... check he's calmed down.'

Hiro nodded and Rena opened the door cautiously, stepping slowly into the room.

Tadashi was sat with his back to her, his knees pulled up to his chest and his head in his hands. He showed no signs that he'd even heard her come in, instead staying in that fixed position on the ground. Rena cleared her throat loudly and he jumped, showing his face. His eyes were surrounded by a ring of red and Rena noticed that one of his ears was bleeding ever so slightly, barely enough to notice.

They looked at each other awkwardly. Tadashi gave her a weak smile that she did nothing return.

'Hiro's out in the hall,' she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder, 'we're gonna sit down and you can explain to him why you did that. And why you didn't mean it. Or did you mean it?' She added, raising her eyebrow.

Tadashi wiped at his eyes and scrambled to his feet. 'Of course I didn't mean it! Who do you think I am?!'

Rena strode over to him and grabbed his shirt. 'Right. But if you lay a finger on him - Baymax is out there with a very strong sedative. And a giant ass needle.'

Tadashi laughed nervously. 'Relax! I'm... I'm not gonna do anything!'

'An hour ago, I would've believed you. But you can't go pulling shit like that without suffering the consequences. Grow up.'

Tadashi opened his mouth to respond but clamped it promptly shut again, his eyes glistening. He sighed in defeat and sunk down onto the couch, his back to his sister. Rena rolled her eyes before turning on her heel and practically storming into the hallway.

'Baymax,' she said, opening the door. 'I need a painkiller.'

He handed her a small pill which she promptly swallowed. 'Thanks.'

'I am a healthcare companion. It is my duty.'

'Yeah, yeah.' She replied impatiently. 'You ready to go in?'

Hiro looked at her. 'You seem tense.'

'Gee, I wonder why!' She replied loudly. Hiro flinched and she softened, grabbing his hand and squeezed it tightly. 'I'm sorry. You don't have to go in there.'

Hiro straightened out. 'No, I don't. But I'm not scared of him.'

Rena smiled. 'I was hoping you'd say that.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have also written an AU for Big Hero 8. Essentially, it's what would have happened if Tadadashi had died in the fire. I'm pretty proud of it, so I'll be posting it on here at some point. It's not another sequel or anything, literally just a 'what if.' So yeah, look forward to that :)


	22. Chapter 22

Jason Fournier was feeling rather smug.

He was stood in a large hall. On one side was his brother. The other was Caine. Behind him stood half a dozen men, all cracking their knuckles or grinning menacingly.

Opposite him stood a man built like a house. Nobody flanked him, as requested. The man stood tall, as though he was trying to intimidate him. Fournier couldn't help but smirk. This man was the least of his concern.

'Yama, did you do as I asked?'

'Yes sir. Yama fought the fight.'

'The kid?'

'Injured. But he got away.'

'As I requested. Good. And... his brother?'

Yama laughed loudly. 'Don't worry, my little friend had that all sorted.'

'Meaning?'

'The green thing. It was implemented into his neck, as you asked.'

Jason smiled. 'Excellent. Now, your payment.' He extended his hand outward and dropped a bag of money onto the floor. 'If you're lucky Yama, we'll never speak again.'

Yama grinned, his eyes lighting up greedily. 'Nice doing business with ya!'

Jason nodded. He turned and gestured to his guard. 'Gentlemen.'

'Wait!' Yama called. 'What.. what was that green thing? Should it be something Yama should be investing in?'

Jason turned back to him and gave him a cold smile. 'That thing? It was a chip. And I wouldn't worry about it Yama... that was the only one in existence.'

Tadashi Hamada felt like he was losing his mind.

Most days, he would wake up with a pounding headache that would not subdue for hours, sometimes not at all. A pain in his neck constantly bothered him, sometimes sending sharp jolts up and down his neck and spine so powerful he could scarcely move. Sometimes, hours would pass by without him having any recollection of what he had even achieved. More than once, he had come to sat in his car parked in a random street in the city. Once, he found himself lying in a dumpster with no idea of how he has gotten there.

And his own family was beginning to distrust him. Hiro would always flinch when he made any sudden movements. Rena always side-eyed him whenever he entered a room, as though afraid he would turn around and hit her. Even Aunt Cass was beginning to grow wary; he barely had any shifts in the cafe anymore.

Tadashi did his best to ignore it. Some days, these subtle things were barely noticeable. On a good day, he would be able to make it through without blacking out. On others, it took every ounce of his strength to get out of bed.

He considered confiding in his sister. Or even Baymax. However, he shot down this idea quickly. The last thing he wanted was to worry anybody, especially when they were determined that one day he was going to snap. Maybe he was.

One thing was for sure though - for all his medical expertise, he had absolutely no clue what was happening.

'Where were you this afternoon?'

'Hmmm?' He said, snapping his head up from the book he wasn't reading. He was in the garage, hidden in a corner on the couch. The lamp was on and it was peaceful.

Rena was stood over him, her arms crossed and her eyebrows knitted together. 'This afternoon? You were supposed to come to Fred's with us? You know... we were going to go over the schedule for night watch?' Her voice dropped at this last bit, as though she didn't want anyone to hear. Not that it mattered, they were the only ones in the garage.

Tadashi paused, wracking his brains for a good enough excuse. Truth was, he'd come to about an hour ago sat on the street outside. He'd simply stood up and walked inside, trying not to think too much about where he might have been. 'Oh! I knew I had to do something! Sorry, I forgot.'

'Forgot? You told me you were on your way there!' She replied, holding her phone out to him.

Tadashi squinted at the screen, reading his own message out loud. 'I'm on my way. Be there in 10'

Huh. Weird.

Rena raised her eyebrows. 'So? Where did you go?'

Tadashi shrugged. 'Something came up.'

She sighed and sat down next to him, putting her feet up on the table in front of them. 'Right. So something came up, and you didn't think to let any of us know? How urgent could it have been? What were you doing?'

Tadashi closed his book. 'Stop with the questions! You don't need to know where I am every minute of every single fucking day!'

'You're twisting my words. All I'm saying is that I have the right to know why you just disappeared!'

'God! Just leave me be!'

'What is going on with you?!'

'Nothing! Fuck off Rena!'

She stared at him, her eyes full of hurt. 'You always tell me everything. I know you Tadashi, something's going on. Why can't you just tell me?'

'Nothing is going on. I'm just tired.'

'Well that's the biggest lie if I've ever heard one. Ever since Hiro's botfight, you've been... off. Has something happened? Is it just the botfight?'

Tadashi closed his eyes, his mind drifting back to that day. It was only a couple of weeks ago, yet it felt like a decade ago. He cringed at the memory of sitting opposite Hiro and Rena, begging them to forgive him. Not even he knew why he'd done that, it was like he was in a trance. One minute he was absolutely fine, then it was like a switch had gone off in his head and all of a sudden he was trying to hurt him. And he had said some terrible things. He hated himself for it.

'Rena, I'm fine. Stop over analysing everything.'

'Tadashi, two weeks ago you pinned our brother to the ground. You broke my nose. Sorry for being a little bit wary.'

Tadashi wanted to tell her. He really did. But something was holding him back. A little voice in the back of his head telling him not say a single word. The voice was convincing. It was the same voice that had told him to hit Hiro. The same voice that had told him to do countless questionable things over the last couple of weeks.

'I'm sorry I bailed on you today.'

'It's not about that. I'm worried about you.'

'Don't be.' He snapped, surprising himself with the coldness in his own voice. 'I can take care of myself. Alone.'

'I know you can! But you don't have to. You never have to do anything alone.' She said quietly, taking his and squeezing it. 'I'm just trying to look out for you. This year has been rough.'

'You can say that again.'

She laughed softly. 'Well. At least it's almost over.'

Tadashi would agree, but in his delirious state of mind, he couldn't even remember what the date was.


	23. Chapter 23

Rena's head was bowed, her hand flying across the page in front of her. Every so often, she would glance up and look at the screen, occasionally scrolling down or clicking onto another page. It was late, and the only source of light in the room was coming from the computer screen in front of her. She was alone; the only sounds reverberating across the walls was the sound of her pen and the soft clicks of the mouse. It wasn't even late, yet she was probably the only person in the entire building. Or so she thought.

The door to her lab slowly creaked open. Startled, she looked up from her work and squinted in the direction of the door, her eyes slowly adjusting to the light that had suddenly poured into the room.

'Caine?' She said, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

'In the flesh!' He replied, grinning. 'What you up to?'

'Oh,' she said, brushing her stuff aside on the desk and clicking off the document, 'not much really, kinda just trying to catch up on some work.'

'It's like... 8.'

'And? That's not that late!'

He chuckled and leant against the wall, arms folded across his chest. 'It's a Friday night. Don't you have anything better to do?'

'Okay first of all, rude. Second of all, I need to do this! I'm getting pretty behind!'

'Oh yeah? Why's that?'

Rena shrugged. 'I dunno... just got a lot going on I guess?' She thought it best not to tell him about night patrol or psycho Tadashi.

Caine laughed. 'Full offence, but that's the lamest excuse ever. Come on, live your life a little!'

Rena shook her head, grinning. 'What, you mean sitting here on my own on a Friday night in sweats and a hoodie isn't living my best life? Rude.'

'Tell me, how do you feel about alcohol?'

Rena narrowed her eyes. 'Why?'

'Just wondering.'

'Uhhh... I don't know... wine is nasty?'

'Well yeah, no shit. Have you ever even tried it?'

'What, wine? Yeah! I mean like... a sip once or twice yeah.'

'Yeah but have you ever tried alcohol properly?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Caine, look at me. Do I look like I've ever been on a wild night out and gotten pissed?'

'Let's do it then.'

'Wait.. what? Now?'

'Yeah! Why not? I've some vodka in my car, and I know a place we can go.'

Rena laughed. 'I'm good thanks. I need to finish this. Thanks for the offer though.'

Caine raised his eyebrows. 'Why? You scared?'

She flipped him the finger. 'Okay, fuck off now.'

'And you called me rude! Come on,' he walked over to her and grabbed the pen out of her hand. 'I dare you.'  
\-------------------------------  
'Where the hell are we going?' Rena yelled.

Caine looked back at her and smirked. 'You'll see!'

'It better hadn't be far!'

Rena hurried after him. The air was cold and she could see her breath in front of her. The fast food lights of the city all blurred together into a kaleidoscope of colours. It was almost enough to make her eyes water.

They ran along a street quickly, the only sounds were their rapid breathing and their shoes as they slapped against the damp pavement. This part of the city was quiet, and it felt like they were the only ones in the world. Rena followed the blonde haired boy around a corner and almost smacked straight into him. He was stood at the foot of a tall building, staring up at the scaffolding that surrounded it.

'We're going up there.' He said, pointing upwards.

Her eyes drifted upwards to the top of the building where he was pointing. She couldn't help but smile. 'Up the scaffolding?'

'Indeed m'lady!' Caine replied, grinning. He adjusted his coat and gestured to the metal poles. 'Ladies first?'

She rolled her eyes and surveyed the scaffolding. Hesitantly, she reached up and grabbed the pole above her. 'If I fall and die, I'll kill you.'

'Noted.'

Rena hoisted herself up and perched on the wooden platform a few feet up. She looked down on Caine below her and grinned. 'Need any help, princess?'

'Give us chance!' He replied, shaking his head. He jumped up and grabbed the pole, pulling himself up. He crouched on the wood next to her and smiled. 'See? I'm not that bad!'

'Yeah, only 10 floors to go.' Rena replied, looking up at the beams and metal above her. 'Race you?'

'You're on!'

Ten minutes later, Rena collapsed onto the roof of the building. Caine triumphantly stood above her, waving a bottle of vodka in the air. 'I win bitch!'

'HOW?!' She yelled, exasperated.

Caine grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. 'Found a ladder.' He said smugly, 'you've a splinter by the way.'

Rena looked down at her hand and blinked. 'Oh yeah.' She pulled it out, wincing. 'I can't believe you found a ladder and never told me, that's so mean!'

He shrugged. 'It's your fault for making it a race. What can I say, competition brings out the worst in me.'

'I could've avoided a splinter! That's just straight up evil to be honest.'

Caine laughed. 'I think you're being dramatic. Besides, you'll forgive me when you see this view.'

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the edge. 'See? San Fransokyo's better at night.'

'Wow.' Rena breathed. 'It's.. yeah. Beautiful.'

She shivered and wrapped her hoodie tighter around herself. The wind circled their heads and made her hair blow around in her face. Caine pointed towards the Golden Gate bridge, the hundreds of cars driving across it winking at them in the moonlight. The red of the bridge stood out against the night sky and the water below it looked calm and still as opposed to murky and dirty as it usually did.

'You know what makes it more beautiful?' Caine said, turning around and pulling a bottle out from his coat. 'Ta daaa!'

Rena laughed as he brandished a bottle of vodka in the air. 'Where did you even get that?!'

'I have my ways!' He grinned mischievously. 'Now - how much of a lightweight are you?'

'I have NO idea.'

'Well, now's the time to find out!'

He tossed the bottle to her. It went flying through the air and she screeched and dived towards it, luckily grabbing it before it went crashing to the ground. 'Oh you're an IDIOT! She gasped, clutching it to her chest. 'What if it had smashed?!'

Caine grinned, 'then you would owe me a bottle of vodka!'

Rena laughed and unscrewed the bottle. 'On a scale of 1-10, how rank is vodka?'

'Oh, definitely a 10. It's disgusting.' Caine replied, 'you'll love it.'

Rena shrugged and took a huge mouthful, almost coughing it back up onto the ground in front of her. She was bent forwards, coughing and her eyes streaming. 'I think... I drank... too much..'

Caine roared with laughter. 'Atta girl! Although maybe a little bit less next time, no?'

Rena flipped him the bird before sitting down cross-legged on the rooftop. She took another swig of the vodka and placed the bottle down it front of her, sighing and tipping her head up towards the sky.

Caine walked over and sat next to her, taking a mouthful himself. 'Long week, huh?'

'I've had a long ass year, not gonna lie to you.'

'Oh yeah?' Caine said, sitting back and tilting his head, 'elaborate.'

Rena sighed and grabbed the bottle, tracing the logo with her thumb. 'It's just... everything. Y'know? First the fire, then I like... nearly died. Then the cafe got robbed. My brothers are determined to drive me up the wall. Although that's been a reoccurring thing ever since Hiro was born.'

'Sounds pretty rough.'

'Yeah.' She took another swig of the vodka.

'Slow down!' Caine said, laughing and taking the bottle for her.

'But it's nice!'

'Stop kidding yourself. You know it's not.'

'Yes but... yeah okay I don't have an excuse.'

Caine rolled his eyes. 'Honestly!'

'Don't blame me! Blame my brothers for driving me up the FUCKING WALL!'

'That bad is it?' He questioned sympathetically. 'Man. If I didn't know better I'd say you hate them.'

Rena studied him. 'Do you have any brothers?'

Caine sighed. 'Nah. Just me and my parents. Well.. until I moved out it was.'

'Then you wouldn't get it! I mean, no offence. But it's like... I would do anything for them. Both of them. I'd give 'em a kidney, but there's no way they're borrowing my phone charger. Ever. You get what I mean?'

He looked sad. 'Yes. Yes, I think I do.'

Rena waved her hands in the air wildly, the alcohol beginning to take effect. 'I love them! God, I do! I want nothing but the best for them! But sometimes, I just wish they would SHUT UP! Or like... just... be normal. Be safe, or whatever. I don't want anything to happen to them, but they keep getting themselves in dangerous situations. Like the fire... that fucking fire...'

Caine didn't say anything for a while. 'It's sweet. It is.'

Rena smiled. 'You're a good listener. And I think I'm going a little mad. Now pass the vodka.'

He chuckled and passed her the bottle. 'How is Tadashi?' He asked anxiously.

'He's uhhh... He's Tadashi.'

'Yeah? Now forgive me, but what does that mean?'

She threw her hands in the air. 'I don't know! He's a dickhead. And something's going on with him. Something always is recently. He... just needs to chill!'

Caine chewed his lip. 'Well. I don't know what advice I can offer you.'

'I don't want anyy!' She sang loudly, 'everything is going great!'

Caine laughed. 'I was right! You are a lightweight!'

'Sh... shut it!' She replied, elbowing him in the side. 'I knew I was a lightweight! Joke's on YOU!'

'Thought you said you'd never tried it?'

'I was LYING!' She giggled, 'aren't you gonna have anymore?'

He shook his head, grinning. 'One of us needs to be able to walk in a straight line by the end of this.'

'First of all... rude! Second of all... fucking rude!'

'Alright, alright. Go on, tell me about the time you first had alcohol.'

Rena swallowed, her eyes suddenly turning sad. 'High school. With this... girl.'

She closed her eyes and if she concentrated really hard, she could just hear her laugh. Clara. They were sitting on the rooftop, a bottle of stolen alcohol wedged in her backpack. The stars were above them and Rena could remember her pointing upwards and gazing at them with adoration.

'They say stars are the living souls of dead people. I think it's nice, y'know? There's always someone watching over us. Keeping us safe. Loving us despite not being able to talk to us any longer.'

'They're actually formed by nuclear fission. Massive clouds of gas and dust clump together and get hotter and more pressurised until fission occurs and a star is born.'

Clara laughed and elbowed her friend. 'I should've known you'd come out with something like that!'

Rena smiled. 'I like stars.'

'Yeah. Me too.' She craned her neck up to the sky and spread her hand out, as though tracing the stars beneath her fingertips. 'You are my sun, my moon and all of my stars.'

Rena felt dizzy. She glanced at her friend and tried to ignore how fast her heart was racing. 'E.E Cummings.'

Clara grinned. 'I've taught you well!'

'When you consider like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter that much. Do they?'

'Nice. Virginia Woolf.'

Rena nodded, her cheeks flushed. 'You know I'm a science kind of person. But... I think your literature is starting to grow on me.'

Clara smiled softly and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. 'I think your nuclear fission is starting to grow on me.'

Rena laughed. 'Fission is it's own kind of beauty.'

'You're such a nerd.'

'Back at you.'

Clara grabbed the bottle and held it high into the air. 'To nerdiness!'

'To nerdiness!'

She snapped back to the present, opening her eyes to stare at the same blanket of stars she had done with her. How long ago was it? 2 years? 3? It didn't matter. Ever since Clara had moved to France, there was an aching inside her chest that could never quite be replaced.

Alcohol helped.

'Oh yeah?' Caine asked, waiting for her to continue the story.

Rena tilted her head to one side and smiled softly. 'We..we were drinking gi..gin on a rooftop. Don't ask me which, I got too pisssssed to remember where we were. She fell off the roof... broke her f..foot. T...Tadashi got quite the scare when I rang him, crying and begging for him to come pick us up.'

'Who was it? Honey Lemon or something?'

'God no. This...This girl... she was my be-best friend. She moved to France when..when we were still in high... school.'

'Oh?'

'I.. I miss her.' Rena whispered, her eyes watering.

Caine gently put his arm around her shoulder. 'So you're an emotional drunk. I see now.'

Rena hiccuped. 'Shut up!'

'Are you still in contact with her?'

'I have... I have her phone number. Her Twitter.'

'Have you tried to talking to her?'

Rena stiffened. 'N..No. I did.. something bad. I think. She... hates me.'

'I'm sure that's not true. How could anyone hate you?'

'You're just being n..nice cause I was... cryinggg.' Rena slurred, collapsing into his shoulder.

'I was saying that cause I mean it. I really like you Rena.'

'Th...thanks. Me too.'

Caine laughed gently. 'Yeah.'


	24. Chapter 24

'Well, you're proving to be veryyyyy useful.' Jason drawled, smirking wickedly.

Tadashi was sat in a chair, his shoulder slumped and eyes blank. He worked automatically, his hands flying across a keyboard. Jason stood towering over him, and yet the boy didn't seem to notice. He was focused purely on his work; a nuclear explosion could have occurred and he would be none the wiser.

Jason bent forwards and watched the screen as he typed, nodding along with every word. 'So you are smart. Caine was right. As smart as your dear brother though?' He asked, flicking him on the side of the head.

Tadashi didn't notice.

After a few minutes, the screen flashed green and Jason grinned. 'Excellent.' He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device, tapping a few buttons on it. Tadashi stood, his chair scraping against the floor.

'Thank you Mr Hamada. Although... I doubt you heard me. Expect to see me again soon. I am very much looking forward to our next meeting.'

He clicked a button and Tadashi turned and marched out the room, his arms swinging back and fourth like a robot. He walked quickly, steadily. Out into the corridor. Through the winding halls. Past the guards. Down the stairs. Past another set of guards. Through the locked door and to the right he walked, eventually coming to a heavy iron door in front of him.

Matthew Fournier stood at the foot of the door. 'Finished with you, eh?'

Tadashi didn't say anything; he only stared blankly at the man in front of him.

Matthew sighed and opened the door. 'God, I can't wait to kill you.'

Tadashi stepped out into the cool night air and marched over to his car. For a minute, he stood and stared blankly into the air in front of him. Suddenly, he gasped loudly and stumbled, smacking into the metal door. He cursed and rubbed his elbow, head frantically moving from side to side.

'Fuck.' He muttered to himself, 'it happened again.'

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering where the hell he was. For all he knew, he wasn't even in San Fransokyo anymore.

Tadashi opened the door and slid into the driver's seat, patting his pockets in search for his phone. After a few minutes of groping around in the darkness, he found it wedged between his seat and the centre console.

Almost immediately, the screen lit up. 6 missed calls from Rena.

'Oh,' he said softly, already beginning to panic. 'Shit.'  
\------------------------  
'Caine...CAINE.. I am... I am FINE!' Rena yelled, swinging her arms in the air.

Caine was stood next to her, a tight grip on her upper arm. 'Please just let me help, we're still very far above ground.'

She scoffed and wrenched her arm out of his grip, 'I am perfectly capaaaable! Capable? Cable! Cabe?'

'Nope, got it right the first time. Here, let me help.' Caine said, grabbing her hand and pointing to a wooden plank. 'Just step down onto there and then we're pretty much at the ladder.'

She did with some difficulty, stepping downwards and almost slipping over. She grabbed a metal pole and looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling very sick. 'That is.. VERYY high...'

'That's what I just said! Right, it's just along here...' Caine replied, edging towards the ladder. He kept a tight hold of Rena's hand to make sure she didn't fall to her death.

'Your hand is...is sweatyyy.'

'Oi! No it's not, the rail is just a bit wet.'

Rena snorted and Caine rolled his eyes. 'Have you heard back from Tadashi yet?'

She fumbled around in her pocket for her phone, clicking it on and checking the screen. 'Nope!'

Caine nodded and guided her to the ladder. 'I'm gonna go first, yeah?'

'I don't careee!' She sang loudly.

Caine rolled his eyes and stepped onto the ladder, carefully making his way down. He waited until he reached the bottom to yell at her to follow him.

Rena stepped messily onto the ladder, taking about ten times longer than she should have done. With Caine's encouragement, she managed to make it halfway down before any issues.

Her phone buzzed and without thinking she reached for it, slipping off the ladder completely and hanging there by one hand.

'CAINNEEEEE! I FELLLLL!' She screeched, scrabbling to get a hold of the rung with her other hand.

'Wait! Just hold on!' Caine yelled frantically, still very aware of how high up she was. He stepped on the ladder and practically ran up it until he was just below her. 'I'm gonna help you get back on!' He called, grabbing her shoe and shoving it roughly onto the rung.

Rena stepped down and sighed in relief.

Until the ladder slipped and they both went crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

'OW!' Caine yelped as she landed on his arm. He grimaced and lifted his head up from the ground, surprised to see that he wasn't bleeding.

Rena sat up slowly, coughing. Her elbow was bleeding but she didn't seem to care much. 'Caine! Are you... are you okay?!' She slurred.

'Yeah, I'm fine. At least we got down onto the ground fine. Now let's go before the cops arrive. We made that much noise I'd be surprised if they weren't on their way.'

Rena nodded and Caine helped her to her feet, draping her arm around his neck. They stumbled down the street, laughing.

'You're a good friend.' Rena said softly, those words being the clearest thing she'd said in ages. She patted Caine's arm and smiled at him.

'Thanks. Are you gonna call your brother back?'

'Oh! Shit! Dicking hell!' She said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. Clumsily, she managed to dial in Tadashi's number and he answered it almost immediately. 'Heeeeyyyy!' She sang into the phone.

'Rena? What's- Are you okay?'

'I'm finnnneee! Peachy! Happy as LARRY!'

'Where the fuck are you? What's happened?'

'H..Hang on.' She covered the phone speaker with her hand and whispered to Caine, 'where are wwee?'

'We're almost at the park. Just tell him you're there and he can pick you up at the gates.'

''Dashi! Wait, whaddawere we talking about?'

'Rena. You're scaring me.'

'Park! I'm at park. Yeah? Y..yeah. Bye!' She shouted, before hanging up.

Caine dragged her along, catching her as she stumbled every so often. 'I barely know him yet I know he is absolutely shitting himself right now.'

Rena shrugged. 'Don't care. He needs to.. to get a grip. Can I have more alcyhol?'

'Absolutely not. ESPECIALLY seeing as you just called it 'alcyhol.''

'You're so mean to me!'

'Yeah, you like it though.'

'Oh yeah? Do I now?'

Caine smirked and put an arm around her. 'Yes, I think you do.'

'Maybe you're wrong. Maybe I... I maybe I hate you.'

'Oh yeah? Bet.'

They stopped in the middle of the street. Caine pulled her closer and grinned sheepishly. Rena hiccuped and he leant in... hands tracing her face...

He leaned in for the kiss just as Rena realised what was happening.

'No!' She exclaimed loudly, pulling herself away from him. She backed up quickly, stumbling on her own feet and landing in a heap on the ground. 'N-no. Absolutely not.'

Caine stared at her, his eyes wide in shock. 'Wait, I don't understand...'

Rena's drunken mind was reeling. All she could see was Clara, stepping away from her and telling her they couldn't be together. 'You.. You wouldn't. Caine... I'm sorry... I-'

'No.' He shook his head, 'I'm sorry. I misinterpreted things. Badly. I shouldn't have done that. At all.'

'It's not... not that I don't care about you! I do! I do I do I do! Deeeeeply. It's just...' She trailed off, instead fiddling with her shoelace.

Caine nodded. 'Okay. Well. I hope we can still be friends.'

Rena looked at him wearily. 'Yeah. Yes. Indeed.'

Caine sighed. 'You probably won't even remember that that happened.'

Rena looked at him. 'There's something I should probably tell you...'

Caine held up his hand. 'Stop. We don't need to discuss this, you don't need to tell me anything. It's probably the best for the both of us if we don't anyway.'

'Why? Whadda you mean?'

'I don't want to be the guy that takes advantage of you. Come on, you need to get home.'

'I'm not weak.'

'Far from it. But you're also drunk.'

'Not... not that drunk.'

'You had half a bottle of vodka. I should've stopped you.'

'It was my choice. You can't tell me what to do.'

Caine shrugged. 'Yeah. I know that.'

'So... where does this leave us?'

'I don't know. We shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have done this.'

'Done what? What's... what's going on?'

Caine sighed and took a step toward her. Then, he decided against it and took a step back again. 'I don't want to hurt you. But... at this point I can't avoid it.'

Rena's heart was hammering in her chest. 'What? Caine... you're scaring me.'

He shook his head and sighed. 'I'm sorry. Listen, forget about all that, yeah? I'm just... yeah. Forget it. Honestly.'

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She leant her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.

'Caine?'

'Yeah?'

'Promise you won't leave me.'

'I promise.'

His voice was shaking.  
\--------------------------------------------  
'Are you drunk?'

Rena wiped the vomit from her mouth and looked at Tadashi. Unfortunately, he had pulled up just as she was vomiting into a bush at the side of the road. 'Now, what gave you that impression?'

Tadashi stared at her. 'Oh my god. You actually are. You're drunk.'

'I'm not!'

'You're slurring more than Aunt Cass on Christmas day!'

'Bad analogy.'

'Get in the fucking car.'

She sat in the passenger seat, her head leaning against the back of the seat. Tadashi sat in the driver's seat, clutching the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. They were still parked up on the road beside the car. Rena didn't dare ask why they weren't moving.

'I can't believe you.' Tadashi said, shaking his head. 'Do you not remember what happened last time you got pissed? You know, when your friend fell off the roof and I had to take you both to hospital?'

Rena winced. 'Thanks for reminding me. I'm not even that drunk. You're just dramatic.'

'Yeah, and that's why you could barely walk in a straight line to the car.'

'Dramatic.'

'IT'S NOT A GAME!' Tadashi yelled, slamming his hand on the dashboard.

Rena jumped and stared at her brother in shock. His face was red and he was breathing so rapidly you'd have thought he had just run a marathon. Her mind drifted back to the night he attacked Hiro and she balled her hand into a fist. 'Please don't shout.'

'You have no authority over me.'

'And you have no authority over me.'

Tadashi sighed deeply. 'I'm just trying to look out for you.'

'Well fuck you. I don't need you to be my parent Tadashi. I can look after myself.'

'I'm not trying to be your parent! I just don't want you to go get drunk every night? Do you know what could happen?'

She groaned loudly. 'Oh my GOD! It's happened twice in my life! I'm not dead, am I? What's the big deal?!'

'The 'big deal' is that you're one of the only people I have left!' Tadashi shouted, 'and I'm not having you putting yourself in danger!'

'IT WAS A BIT OF ALCOHOL!'

'AND? Alcohol poisoning? What if you fell off the roof? Met a dodgy man on the street? Fell into a river? You don't know what could happen!'

'Jesus christ you're overreacting!'

'Rena, you almost died earlier this year. Sorry for being a little-'

'YOU RAN INTO A FIRE!' She yelled suddenly, sending him into silence. 'You can't dictate to me what I can and can't do, Tadashi!' She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. 'You ran into a fire.' She repeated quietly.

'This again. You always bring up the fire. I've apologised - what more do you want me to do?'

'I don't know!' She replied, 'I don't know.' She reached forwards and fiddled with the buttons for the radio, looking for something to fill the silence. An unfamiliar country song played quietly and she turned the volume up to hear it properly.

It was the third of June, another sleepy, delta day

I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay...

'An ode to Billy Joe.' Tadashi said, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

'What?'

'The song. An ode to Billy Joe. Dad hated it, he'd always turn the radio off when it played. I don't think it's all that bad.'

'Now that you mention it, it sounds familiar.'

And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered out the back y'all remember to wipe your feet

'Tadashi.'

'Yes?'

'I don't understand.'

'Understand what exactly?'

Today Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge

'Why Hiro wants to kill himself.'

Tadashi turned the music off. 'Why would you say that? Now? Really?'

She shrugged. 'It's weird we never talk about it.'

'Is that the alcohol talking, or you?'

'Both?'

He sighed and didn't answer her for a long time. 'I don't know why. I don't want to talk about this right now.'

'You never wanna talk about it.'

'Neither do you! You're only asking because you're drunk.'

'Are you mad?'

'...Not really. A little. I don't know. There's a lot going on.'

She squinted at him. 'Like?'

'Just... school.'

'Somehow I don't believe that. I know there's something going on with you. I always know.'

He smiled. 'That you do.'

'So? What is it?'

'Nothing. I'm fine.'

'Fucking liar.'

'Say whatever you want, Rena. I'm past the point of caring. Let's just go home before you vomit in the car.'

She grimaced. 'No promises I'll make it that far.'

Tadashi rolled down the windows as he backed out. The fresh air was cool on his face. 'You know you can talk to me about anything, yeah?' He said, looking at her slumped figure out the corner of his eye.

'Right back at you.' She looked out the window and sighed. 'When did everything start going to shit?'

'Probably about 11 years ago, to be fair.'

'Do you think we're doomed, the three of us? Like... we're destined to always end up back in this car not saying what we need to say?'

'We're all doomed. We're all gonna die one day.'

'God, that's fucking depressing.'

'Doesn't have to be. Life's only beautiful 'cause it's short.'

'I don't think I'm destined for my life to be beautiful.'

'No. You are. Just... give it time.'

'What if I don't want to?'

'Well, tough luck. You're not going to leave me. Or Hiro.'

'Considering it.'

'Well that's rude. What have we ever done to you?'

'I have a spreadsheet.'

'Fair enough.'

Rena looked out the window and chuckled softly. 'Yeah. Fair enough.'


	25. Chapter 25

Caine slid his key into the lock and pushed against the heavy door with his shoulder. He slipped into the room and dropped the key onto the table next to the door.

The apartment was dirty. It had been for a long time. Pizza boxes and cans were littered across every surface. The couch was ratty and falling apart with a number of suspicious looking stains. The TV hadn't worked for months and he couldn't be bothered to fix it. There was mould on the walls and he slept on a mattress.

Caine didn't really care. It wasn't like he spent that much time in his apartment anyway.

He kicked a half full beer can out of his way and flung himself onto the sofa, pulling out his burner phone. Jason had insisted that he keep it on him at all times. Over the years, he had developed a habit of checking it every five minutes. A new message flashed on the screen and he sighed, adjusting his glasses to read it.

Go to location one now.

He rolled his eyes. He'd only just gotten home and yet he was being summoned to another bloody meeting. He was probably just being called to hear another one of Jason's rants about how much he hated Hiro Hamada and how all his family deserved to die.

Rena. His stomach clenched at the thought of Jason getting his hands on her. Caine knew full well what was going to happen to her; yet he didn't have the power to stop him. Nobody could stop Jason Fournier once he set his mind to something.

'It's your own fault.' He muttered, rising from the couch and kicking a plastic bottle across the room. 'Don't get attached. Idiot.'

Only that had failed, hadn't it? He'd kissed her. He'd kissed her and she'd pushed him away. Caine was angry, but more at himself than at her. What was he thinking? He knew full well that Jason had every intent on killing her. He knew that from the start and yet he let himself fall for her. And the stupidest part is - he thought she felt the same.

What would he have done anyway? Beg Jason not to kill her? Fat chance. If Caine even hinted at the fact that he'd grown attached to Rena Hamada Jason would not hesitate to have him eliminated. He knew that.

'You were placed a spy.' He muttered under his breath, 'that was all. You were supposed to monitor them. Now look what you've gotten yourself into.'

He had wracked his brains for a solution countless times. Rena Hamada was going to die along with the rest of her family. He wanted more than anything to stop it. But how?

He couldn't. That was the short answer. There was nothing he could do about it. Especially now that Jason had carried out Project 412. He'd be a fool to even try and stop it.

Now Rena was going to die knowing he'd betrayed her. And Caine hated himself for it.

But... at the same time... his desire for revenge ran deep. He'd never met Hiro. In fact, he'd purposely avoided the kid for all this time. Mainly so that he didn't recognise Caine and give it away, but also because of how angry he was at him. It was Hiro's fault that Marissa had died. There were no two ways about it. Hiro Hamada had been the catalyst for her death. He was the one responsible for ruining everything good in Caine's life. And Jason's. And Matthew's.

Caine was hungry for revenge. How could he not be? Hiro needed to die. He knew that much. But.. did Rena really have to as well? Was it selfish to just want to keep her alive?

'Don't be soft.' He muttered under his breath as he slid the key back into the door. 'She must die. Yes, you tried to kiss her. It means nothing. She means nothing to you. You were an idiot. Put all that behind you. She can die.'

He sighed deeply as he ran down the concrete stairs of his apartment block. Location one was only a five minute walk away from him; he'd be there in no time.

His mind was going a hundred miles an hour as he walked down the street. The air was cold and refreshing on his face, waking him up faster than any amount of caffeine.

It had been two days since he had last seen Rena. Two days since they'd sat on the rooftop and she had pushed him away. Was it really only two days ago? It felt like a lifetime had passed in those 48 hours.

His face hardened. No, he wasn't going to waste any more time thinking about her. He'd already spent enough time thinking. He was done with it. Thinking? Yeah, that was overrated.

He reached the old warehouse by the river - location one. Jason insisted on code-naming each of their secret hideouts a different code name. Not that it would make any difference. Everyone in the gang was too scared to snitch and everyone outside was too scared to go looking. They knew what happened to traitors. Caine could still hear their screams in his dreams.

He knocked on the heavy iron door and it slowly creeped open with a noise loud enough to wake the whole city.

Matthew's face peered out from between the gap, his eyes alight with delight. He let Caine slip inside and clapped him on the shoulder. 'Boyo, we've done it!'

Caine narrowed his eyes at him, suspicious of his uncharacteristic glee. 'Done what?'

'He's not told you?! Oh brilliant, just wait until you see this!'

He gestured for the boy to follow him. Caine marched down the corridor behind him, his eyes peeled and back straight. After all this time, he was still never at ease in Jason's territory. Something told him he was never going to be.

They went down some stairs and across another, longer corridor. The whole time, Matthew seemed to be overflowing with joy.

'Finally!' He said loudly, gesturing to the walls and ceiling as though they were alive. 'We've done it! Not long now until the Hamada child is dead! Not long at all!'

His cackling didn't stop until they reached the end of the corridor. Matthew held out his hand as they approached a green door flanked by two of Jason's men Caine vaguely recognised from somewhere. His heart was pounding and he was doing a poor job of hiding his anxiety.

Matthew said something in a low voice to the man on the right and he nodded in response. The guard turned and slid a key into the door; successfully unlocking it.

Matthew gestured for Caine to go inside, grinning wickedly. 'I don't like you all that much boy, but you're largely responsible for this. You should get your chance to gloat. Maybe get one of our... ah... tools and you can have a go at torture!'

He said it so casually, Caine didn't recognise what he said at first. 'Uhh... what?'

But Matthew wasn't listening. He had already began walking down the corridor away from him, whistling.

Caine looked nervously at the guards, unsure of what to say. 'Shall I just... go in?'

'Permission has been granted.' The man on the right stated simply.

Caine stepped forward and opened the door. He stepped into the semi-darkness, scrunching his nose up in disgust at the foul smell that met him.

He reached for the light: a single string attached to the ceiling. The room was suddenly lit up and as he looked up his heart seemed to stop.

In the centre of the room was a basic wooden chair. There was a bucket of water and a soaking wet towel next to it. A knife had been thrown in the corner; a baseball bat lying next to it.

Tied to the chair was a girl with dark curly hair. Her head was bowed forwards, blood dripping from her face onto the floor. Her breathing was ragged and the ropes seemed to be cutting into her.

Rena Hamada slowly raised her head and Caine put a hand to his mouth in shock.

She was missing a tooth. Maybe more. Her nose was bleeding and so was her lip. Her right eye was swollen and blackened. Her eyes were dead. That was possibly the scariest thing. She looked... hopeless. He'd never seen her like this before.

Rena looked at him and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth then clamped it shut again, seemingly lost for words.

Caine swallowed down a mouthful of bile and without saying a word, he turned around and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO! I've finished transferring everything over, so chapter updates will be less frequent. I try to aim for once a week, but sometimes it's less often than that. Just letting you know that you won't be getting 6 chapters in one night anymore :))  
> Thank you for all the comments, kudos, etc. They are very much appreciated!


	26. Chapter 26

24 hours earlier...

'Hell yeah!'

Rena almost fell down the stairs she was running so fast. 'Hey! Wait up!'

'Not a chance!' Hiro yelled back to her. He jumped the last few steps and landed sprawling on the grass outside the main school building.

Rena dragged her hand along the wall, gathering up a huge handful of snow. 'Right, this is revenge for last year!' She shouted.

Hiro's eyes widened. 'No! Go AWAY!' He brought his backpack up to cover his face. Flakes of snow had already settled in his hair, reminding Rena of the flour incident just a few weeks prior.

It had been snowing for their past two lessons, but they weren't able to get outside. As soon as the bell rang, Rena had run into Hiro and they raced one another outside. More students were piling out the doors after them, all grinning from ear to ear. It was almost Christmas break - the hall was covered in lights and there was a sweet smell of gingerbread and spices in the air. And the snow was falling thick and fast; the ground was already covered in a couple of inches.

Rena launched the snowball at her brother as she could, grinning from ear to ear. Christmas was her favourite time of the year. 'HA!'

Hiro withdrew from behind his backpack, scowling. 'Right. That's it.' He got to his feet and began making another snowball.

'We're even now!'

'Absolutely not!' Hiro extended his arm back and launched it, but missed.

Fortunately for him though, Wasabi just happened to be walking up to Rena to say hello. The snowball hit him square in the face, sending snow all over his jumper.

'WHY?!' He exclaimed loudly, frantically brushing the flakes from his jumper.

Hiro grinned sheepishly. 'Sorry Wasabi!'

Rena tutted. 'Your aim is terrible.'

'Hey, I can't be good at everything.' Hiro replied.

'I can't believe it's snowing!' Honey Lemon cried, running towards them and crashing into Rena, giving her a bone-crushing hug. 'Look at it! It's beautiful!'

Rena's heart was hammering as she wrapped her arms around her friend, trying to hide her burning red face. 'Y...yeah!'

Honey Lemon untangled herself and held her phone up, doing a peace sign with her hand. 'Rena! Smile!'

'How are you so red already? It's not even that cold.' Gogo said, materialising out of nowhere.

'Well... I-'

'HEADS!' Wasabi cried, diving to the ground.

A huge snowball came flying out of nowhere and smacked Rena square in the chest, sending snow flying everywhere.

'OW! FUCK!' She cursed.

'HA! GOT YOU!' Fred screeched, jumping up and down from afar. He raced over to Hiro and gave him a high five. 'See! Told you I could do it!'

Hiro laughed loudly. 'Good work!'

Rena stared at them. 'Did you plan that?!'

'Yep. To be fair, it was meant to be Tadashi. But I don't know where he is so I told him to go for you. Now, did anyone get a photo?'

'I did.' Gogo said, smirking.

'Were you all in on this?!' Rena exclaimed.

'I wasn't.' Wasabi replied.

'Yeah, cause you were next in line after Rena.' Fred said, shrugging.

'Where is Tadashi anyway?' Honey Lemon asked. 'I want a group photo in the snow!'

Rena pulled out her phone, but there were no texts or anything from her older brother. 'I've no idea. I'll go find him now.'

'I think he's still inside.' Gogo said. 'I passed him on the way outside, he said something about work?'

'I think Baymax needed charging.' Hiro shrugged, 'he's probably in his lab.'

'Got it.' Rena said, turning around and walking back inside. 'I'll be back in a minute!'

She rushed up the stairs and back into the school building, hiding away from the cold. Her footsteps echoed in the empty corridor as she made her way over to Tadashi's lab, humming a Christmas song under her breath.

For the hundredth time, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through the few notifications she had. But nope, none of them were what she was looking for. She stopped humming and sighed quietly, suddenly feeling a lot less festive. It was a stupid idea. She was never going to get a response. But still. Her mind wandered back to Friday night - was it really only a few days ago?

She'd staggered into the garage, the alcohol still in her system. She'd collapsed onto the couch in the corner, burying her face in a pillow to try and stop her head pounding. Tadashi had placed a bowl on the floor next to her and a glass of water on the table. He was curled up in a desk chair, headphones in and watching a TV show. Rena was ignoring him, deciding it was best to leave him alone. She had a suspicion he was only there to keep an eye on her anyway.

Then, Rena had done something that she regretted rather a lot. She'd pulled out her phone and done something that she hadn't done in quite some time.

You: hey clara! it's been a whike, just wondering how you are?

She'd sat there in the dark, watching the little blue line at the top of the screen go along until it sent. She'd made a typo. She'd made a fucking typo.

Then Rena did three things. First of all, she launched her phone as hard as she could at the wall. Then, she'd vomited. And finally, she turned away from Tadashi and cried into a pillow for a very long time.

Rena stopped in the middle of the hallway for a second, the unpleasant memory taking her off guard for a second. Again, she glanced down at her phone. It was cracked now, and when she was scrolling through social media she'd often get a shard of glass in her thumb. Her message to Clara had not yet been read. She'd been left on delivered. Rena would have preferred to be punched in the face again.

She was so far away, she almost crashed straight into Professor Granville on the stairs.

'Miss Hamada! I implore you to be more cautious in the future!'

'Sorry Professor! I was a little distracted.'

'And why aren't you outside with the rest of your peers?'

'Oh, I was. I'm just seeing where Tadashi is.'

'Ahhh, I see.' Granville paused for a second, as though she was deep in thought. 'Is something going on with him?'

'I don't know, Professor. Is there any reason why you're asking?'

'Nothing in particular. Please just remind him that he still owes me a paper from last week.'

'Okay.'

'Thank you, Miss Hamada.'

Granville continued down the stairs, leaving Rena on her own.

She knew exactly why Granville had asked. Tadashi had never, ever, turned a paper in late. He'd always handed everything in on time since Middle School. Was she starting to notice how confused he seemed lately? How exhausted? How... off he seemed?

She sighed. She was probably overthinking it. They couldn't seem to catch a break lately; Rena was just being paranoid. Yeah. That was it.

Just paranoia.

She ran the rest of the way up the stairs and was outside his lab before she knew it. Gently, she rapped her knuckles against the glass door.

'Heyyy,' she called as she opened it, slipping inside and closing the door behind her. 'What you up to?'

Then she looked up. Tadashi was stood staring at her, his face slack and his eyes blank. Baymax was charging in the corner and a pile of papers lay on the desk next to him, only half-written. Clearly he was in the middle of something.

Rena tried not to be too afraid of his scarily blank expression. 'What you working on?'

It was so fast. One minute, he was standing there looking at her. The next, something seemed to click in his brain and he'd swooped forwards, pressing a cloth to her face.

Rena screamed. She desperately tried to pull him off of her, but her mind was becoming foggy. A sharp chemical smell filled her nostrils and she began to panic.

Ether.

She kicked him in the shin as hard as she could, but she was getting weaker by the second. It was hardly enough to make him flinch.

He pulled the cloth away and she took a great, heaving breath before the ether took her under, leaving her limp in her brother's arms. She couldn't muster the strength to say anything as slowly, slowly, the world fell into darkness.


	27. Chapter 27

'Rena's been like... 20 minutes now. Christ, how hard it is to pull Tadashi away from his work?' Gogo said, rolling a snowball between her hands.

'I thought Tadashi loved snow?' Honey Lemon asked.

'He does.' Hiro said. 'I would've thought he'd be the first out here.'

'He needs to come see this!' Fred shouted i between breaths. He was rolling a massive snowball along the ground. It was easily the size for the base of a snowman, but he kept insisting it was a snowball. 'I mean, look at her! She's beautiful!'

'Who are you throwing that at?' Wasabi asked nervously, eyeing up the huge ball of snow with apprehension.

'Hmmm... I'm not sure yet.'

'What about Caine?' Gogo suggested, smirking m. 'I'd love to see a big ass ball of snow thrown at his head.'

'Oh come on, he's not that bad!' Honey Lemon said, 'Rena likes him!'

'I don't even know who this Caine guy is!' Hiro said, 'I mean, don't you think it's weird that it's now December and I've not seen him once?'

Gogo studied him. 'Are you sure you've not seen him?'

'Yes! I am certain!'

'You probably have, you might not just remember him.' Wasabi said, shrugging. 'He's not the most memorable guy on the planet.'

'I actually find that an insult. You think I straight up just wouldn't notice?'

'Hiro, that wasn't an insult.' Honey Lemon said gently, 'I think it was more of an insult to Caine.'

But Hiro wasn't listening. The fact that he hadn't seen Caine in the flesh had bothered him for a while, but now he was beginning to suspect something was up. 'Yeah but... it just makes no sense. Like, at all. I'm here just as much as you guys; I always hang out with you. But... I've never seen him before? I thought Rena and him were really close? So how does it make sense that I've never met the guy?'

'Hiro, one thing you will come to learn is that there are many mysteries in life. It's merely just a coincidence.' Wasabi said.

Hiro rolled his eyes. 'Yeah yeah, whatever you say.' He sighed and looked around, 'okay seriously though, where have they gotten to?'

'Should we go find 'em?' Wasabi suggested, shivering. 'I'm happy to go look with you, it's freezing.'

'I'll come too.' Said Gogo, 'he's nicked one of my wrenches anyway, it'll be a fine chance to get it back.'

Hiro nodded and they turned to go back inside. 'I can't believe Tadashi's choosing to miss the snow. Unbelievable.'

Gogo laughed. 'Yeah, but you'd be lucky if you could drag him away from his work.'

'True. But still!'

They reached the stairs and climbed, discussing Christmas.

'Oh, I got Honey Lemon that phone case she was looking at.' Gogo said as they turned the corner, nearing Tadashi's lab.

'Oh, the one with all the pink glitter?' Wasabi asked.

'I think I remember her mentioning that, actually. I don't really know what to get her, I was planning on just-' Hiro stopped dead in the middle of his sentence. 'What the fuck?'

The door to Tadashi's lab was wide open. There was a huge pile of papers on the floor; his older brother's frantic scribbles were staring at him from the tiles. His computer was cracked, the desk chair lying on its side. Baymax's charging port was on its side and disconnected from the wall. The light was still on, as though he'd left in a hurry and forgot to turn it off.

'This... this isn't Tadashi.' Gogo said, stepping into the room and peering around, as though she expected him to jump out from behind the door.

'Ewww, look how messy it is!' Wasabi exclaimed, cringing. 'What the hell happened here?!'

Gogo bent down and started shifting through the papers, attempting to put them in some kind of reasonable order. Wasabi was peering at Tadashi's laptop suspiciously, examining the extent of the damage.

Hiro stepped over Gogo and gently lifted Baymax's charging port the right way up. He straightened up and surveyed the room, chewing his lip anxiously. Wasabi was right. This wasn't Tadashi. Sure, he'd expect this kind of chaos from Rena. But Tadashi? Not a chance.

Something caught the corner of his eye and he walked over to the bookshelf, crouching down until he was eye level with it. A red stain was on the edge of the wood. He cautiously placed his index finger to it and, sure enough, it came away red.

'Blood.' He muttered under his breath. 'Has to be.'

'What?' Gogo said, turning around sharply. 'What did you say?'

Hiro ignored her. He straightened out and loudly declared 'OW!'

Baymax inflated at once and waddled over to him. 'Hello Hiro. What seems to be the problem?'

Hiro stepped back and gestured to the book shelf. 'Can you uhhh... can you identify this?'

Baymax bent forwards and scanned the bookshelf. 'My scan shows that this substance is: blood. Specifically, type A.'

Hiro sucked in a breath. '...Who's?'

'My scan detects a match with another scan in my database. The match - Rena Hamada.'

'Hahahaha!' Jason crowed, 'well DONE!'

The girl lay crumpled at his feet. Her older brother stood above her, staring lifeless into Jason's face.

'You know,' Jason said, 'to really get to a person, to REALLY enact revenge... you need to hit them in their weak spot.' He began pacing around the room, hands behind his back. Two bodyguards stood by the door, not saying a word in response. 'Killing them? Pathetic. However... hitting their family...' He turned and gestured dramatically to the two older Hamada's, 'THAT'S where it really hurts.'

He strode over to Rena and bent down, gently tipping her lifeless face upwards. 'And you, my pretty... you. Are where it's going to hurt.'

Rena stirred, aware of a stinging sensation in her elbow. She seemed to have cut it on something, blood was seeping slowly through her jacket.

But that was the least of her worries.

She opened her eyes and groaned softly, her stomach churning as a result of the ether. She looked up slowly as she saw Tadashi, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. 'What the...?'

Jason grinned. 'Over here!' He trilled sarcastically.

Rena got to her feet, brushing off her jeans. 'And... who are you?'

'What an excellent question! I am the man who's going to destiny you and your family. Nice to meet you... Rena Hamada.'

Rena's heart was hammering. 'I don't... I don't understand...' She stepped backwards and smacked into Tadashi. 'Tadashi! What's going on?!' She questioned, but he did not respond. She waved a hand in front of his face, but it remained blank. 'Tadashi! Tadashi!' She pleaded, her voice rising with poorly disguised fear.

'Oh, don't even bother. He won't answer you, you know...' Jason said, grinning evilly.

Rena's fear immediately transpired into anger. 'What did you do?! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HIM?' She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. 'Tadashi! It's me!'

Jason laughed. 'Oh, I'm going to have so much fun!'

He clicked his fingers and Tadashi moved. Within a second, he'd pinned Rena to the wall.

'Tadashi!' She shouted, clawing at her throat. His arm was pressed to her neck, holding her to the concrete wall.

Jason watched, his face slowly melting from glee to anger. 'You know why I'm doing this, girl?'

He clicked his fingers and Tadashi dropped her to the floor. Rena's head cracked against the wall and she winced sharply, her eyes streaming as she struggled to breathe. Her mind was reeling. 'What did you do to him?' She asked again, quieter this time.

'Nothing you need to concern yourself with.' Jason said smoothly. 'Now, I won't ask this again. Do you know why I'm doing this?'

A creeping horror arose in her chest, flowering across her entire body. She had an inkling why, but she didn't want to admit it. 'I... No.'

'Ah.' He said, smiling to himself. 'Then we'll save that part for later.'

Rena didn't dare say another word. Her eyes drifted to Tadashi stood above her and she was filled with a fresh wave of guilt and anger. She knew something was going on with him, and instead she chose to pretend it wasn't happening. Maybe if she wasn't so wrapped up in her own pathetic affairs, she wouldn't be crouching against a filthy wall, struggling to breathe.

And maybe if she had been a better sister to Hiro then this would never have had happened. Rena wasn't stupid; she knew exactly what this was about. Sure, she didn't know the specifics. But one look at that man's angry face gave her enough of an idea about what this was all about. Botfighting. It had to be. it was no coincidence. Hiro had almost been killed at a botfighting match recently. Yama said he had a lot of enemies. Now all that was catching up to him. Rena had let both of them down. And now she had to live with the consequences of that.

Jason clicked his fingers. 'Here.' He commanded.

Like a dog, Tadashi wandered over aimlessly to him. Jason jerked his thumb over his shoulder and Tadashi left the room, despite Rena's calls for him to stay.

'He won't listen to you.' Jason said, shaking his head and tutting. He walked over to Rena and crouched down next to her, lifting her chin up with one finger. 'You and I are going to have a lot of fun.' He purred.

Rena cringed. Before she could think about it - she spat in his face. 'You. Repel. Me.' She said in a low voice, her voice shaking with fury.

Jason's face contorted with fury. 'You will regret that.' He said dangerously.

He stood and swept out the room. In strode two men. One of them was holding a chair, rope and towel. The other a bucket of water, a baseball bat and a wicked looking blade.

'Now.' The first man said, stepping forwards and placing the chair onto the floor. 'Let's get started.'


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for violence/blood (it's not too graphic)  
> Hope you're enjoying, we're in the middle of a pretty intense bit   
> :))

'My scan detects a match with another scan in my database. The match - Rena Hamada.'

'Rena's blood.' Hiro whispered, his hands beginning to shake. 'Something's wrong.' He stepped backwards, almost tripping over Gogo's outstretched leg.

'Hiro-' Gogo said, standing up and extending a hand towards him.

Hiro walked backwards, shaking his head frantically like there was water in his ears. Without another word, he turned on the heel and bolted down the hallway. His footsteps echoed loudly but he couldn't hear them. His head was pounding and his thoughts were running a mile a minute. He could hear Gogo and Wasabi pelting after him, running so fast he could hear them slipping and sliding on the tile floors. He dove down some stairs and landed roughly on his knees; wasting no time in getting himself back on his feet and almost falling flat on his face when he skidded around the corner. Everywhere he looked, there was no sign of them. Not Rena. Nor Tadashi, for that fact. Hiro kept running until he reached what he was looking for - the public lab.

He crashed through the doors and whipped his head from side to side. No sign of them. Only one person was in there, their back to him and they appeared to be making a cup of coffee. Hiro bent forwards, gasping for breath.

'HIRO!' Gogo screeched, diving into the lab and grabbing his shoulders. 'What the HELL?!'

'Are... Are you okay?' Wasabi panted, coming in close behind her.

Hiro waved them off. 'Good. Perfect. We... We need to... Find... Them...'

The boy in the corner of the room turned as he heard them speak, evidently alarmed by Gogo's angry screeching. 'What's going on here?' He stepped towards them and surveyed the scene before him.

Hiro looked up, red-faced and fearful. As he did, the mug from the boy's hand slowly fell downwards and crashed onto the floor. Coffee splashed in waves, slowly trickling towards them.

Hiro fought back the urge to scream his head off. He blinked rapidly, staring at the boy with the horn-rimmed glasses and blonde hair. His eyes drifted to his hands. The same hands that had held him back. His nose. The same nose he had broken. It had been months, but he would remember that face anywhere. 'You.' He breathed, clenching his fists as though it was a reflex. 'How? H...How are you HERE? And... Why?'

'Hiro?' Wasabi asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. 'What's...What's the matter?'

'Absolutely nothing.' Caine said smoothly, an almost evil glint in his eyes. 'I believe this boy is mistaken. I've never seen him in my life.'

Hiro stared at him, fear slowly plaguing his mind. That boy has been here the whole time. The boy that encountered him on that night. The night he still dreamt about. The night that that woman had died. The night that he had first encountered Jason Fournier. The most evil man in the entire city. Best botfighter around. What had he been doing? What had he been planning? Was he getting revenge?

'Hiro, it's only Caine.' Gogo said, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

'No,' he muttered, 'it's not though. Why are you HERE?' He demanded.

Caine gestured to the room. 'Because I work here. Now if you'll excuse me,' he nodded to the spilt coffee on the floor, 'I'm going to get a mop.'

He stepped past them and exited the room. Hiro began pacing up and down, his hands in his hair. 'There's something going on here. Where's Rena? Tadashi? Are they even here? What the hell is going on?'

'Woah there, slow down buddy.' Wasabi said.

'Hiro, they're probably just outside.' Gogo said, 'what's going on? Why'd you freak out about Caine?'

'Explain the blood then!' He snapped in response. He pulled his phone out his pocket and dialled Tadashi's number. It rang a couple of times and fell dead. 'Tadashi always answers his phone. Always. We need to find them.'

'I think you're overreacting.'

'Gogo!' Hiro exclaimed, tears in his eyes. His voice and hands were shaking; still recovering from that chance encounter with Caine. 'What if they're hurt?'

'They're fine!' She replied, shaking her head. 'Stop being ridiculous.'

'I've had to sit at both their bedsides this year, at the hospital.' Hiro said quietly, 'I had to hear Rena flatline. I had to watch Tadashi run into a huge fire because I couldn't stop him. Forgive me if I'm being a little afraid.'

Gogo studied him, then pulled him into a hug. 'Okay then. Fine. We'll find them. And they're gonna be fine. Yeah?'

'Yeah.'  
\------------------  
'Get off!'

One of the men had Rena's arm in a tight grip. With a grunt, he yanked her to her feet and dragged her over to the chair. She struggled against his grip but it was no use. After all, she was only a teenage girl. A pretty strong and fiery teenage girl, but still a teenage girl. This guy was built like a house with a thick neck and biceps as wide as her head. It was difficult not to be afraid of him.

He pushed her roughly into the chair and seized her arms, pulling them behind her back and tying them together tightly with the rope. Rena winced as her wrists were slammed together, her skin already cutting into the rope. 'So uhh... what we planning on doing now then?' She asked nervously.

The second guy chortled. 'We only received one instruction - make you suffer. How do you feel about being filmed?'

Rena felt sick. 'Filmed?' Her palms were beginning to sweat at the prospect of possible torture.

'Yeah. Boss wants to send a nice little warning to your brother dearest.' He said, grinning evilly. 'But I reckon we should mess up that pretty little face a bit first. What do you reckon, pal?'

With a final grunt, the muscled man finished tying the knot and stepped back, examining his work. 'Why not?' He stepped round to the front of the chair and licked his lips. 'This will be fun.'

Rena began to struggle against her binds, but to no avail. 'What do you mean, a warning?'

'I mean a warning. Clear and simple.'

'Yeah but like... what constitutes as a warning? Why exactly? Which brother? Who do you even work for?'

The second man's face twisted. 'Stop asking questions. We ain't gonna answer them.' He grabbed the towel from the floor and dumped it into the water bucket, allowing it to soak. 'We ask the questions.'

Rena stared at the water bucket, her mind racing. She knew what was coming. So how could she avoid it? Stall. That was what she had to do. That was all she could do. 'Go on then.'

'Eh?' The muscled man questioned.

'Ask me questions. Fire away. Looks like we'll be here for a while. Why don't we get to know one another?' Her voice was shaking, but she tried not to reveal how scared she was. Once she did that, she'd be dead meat.

The first man laughed. 'Girl, do you even know why you're here?'

'I don't think so. Why don't you enlighten me?'

'Do you really want to know?'

'Yes. Yes, I believe I do.'

He grabbed the towel and squeezed it out into the bucket. 'Your brother.' He said, stepping towards her and brandishing the towel above is head, 'led to the death of one of our own. Nobody gets away with that. No one. Now, take a nice, deep breath if you want.'

Rena didn't even have time to process the information before the towel was pressed to ehe face and she couldn't breathe. Her scream was silenced by the fabric. Within seconds, panic had completely overtaken her body as she sat there, struggling to breathe.

Laughing, he lifted the towel off her face. Rena's head bowed forwards as she gasped for breath, trying not to let tears fall. Showing these men she was afraid was the last thing she wanted to do.

She slowly raised her head and looked up at him defiantly. 'I'm not afraid of you.'

He grimaced. 'You should be.'

He pressed the towel to her face again, this time waiting significantly longer to lift it off. 'What about now, little girl?'

Rena just about had enough breath in her to wheeze out a small 'no!'

So he did it again.

And again.

And again.

After the fifth time, Rena blacked out. After she came to, the muscled man was standing over her, leering in her face. 'Know what? I think waterboarding is getting a little... old. How about we try this?'

He stepped backwards and drove his ginormous fist into her face. For the second time in only a few weeks, Rena felt her nose crack and she screamed, her head snapping back and hitting the back of the chair. He did it again - this time his fist making contact with her jaw.

Rena blinked rapidly, her head was sunk down so low her chin was resting on her chest. A single spittle of blood ran down from her mouth and dripped slowly onto the floor. Any second now, she felt like she was going to pass out. She wasn't even that tired, yet sleep felt like it would be so nice...

'Oh no! You're not passing out just yet!' The man exclaimed loudly, 'we've barely even started!'

He grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head up. He grinned evilly, before driving his fist forwards and finding a home in her stomach.

One of her ribs cracked, sending a wave of pain shooting across her whole body. Rena was instantly winded, doubling over as much as she could in her tied up position. Wow. That one hurt.

'Are you done yet?' She rasped, her eyes watering from both embarrassment and pain.

'No, I don't think so.' The muscled man said cheerily, slapping her across the face again. 'We need to make sure you look good enough for the film!'

Rena didn't know what was worse. The creepy manner in which he said that, or the pool of blood that was gathering in her mouth. She closed her eyes for a brief second, bowing her head and taking the chance to pray to whoever was out there.

'Look up. Or I'll make you.'

Sighing, Rena lifted her head slightly and spat out a tooth onto the floor. The man behind the camera grinned nastily. 'We have your sister!' he cheered triumphantly, 'we're gonna kill her!'

Rena's heart rate accelerated tenfold. She had a sneaking suspicion that that was what they wanted to do, but hearing it out loud made it ten times worse. Well. All she could do now was... What? Hope that they would come to save her? Put themselves in danger for her? No. All she could do was hope that Hiro had the good sense to keep away. And that Tadashi could snap out of... Whatever it was.

She was snapped out of her daydream by another blow from the muscled man. It took every fibre in her being not to scream out, but the pain was beginning to become unbearable. 'I'm fine!' She rasped, desperate to keep Hiro and her friends out of harm. 'Don't worry about me!'

Of course, this would have been more convincing if it weren't for the fact that her mouth was full of blood. The two bodyguards knew this as well, for they roared with laughter.

'Yeah!' One of them exclaimed, 'looking absolutely fine!'

Rena gritted her teeth. 'Every time you talk I think I loose a few braincells. Just shut the fuck up.' She muttered.

The next blow knocked her out.


	29. Chapter 29

Hiro was sat in the garage, his head in his hands and his elbows propped up on his desk. He was half-asleep. The computer screen was lighting up his face, its progress bar only halfway across. Baymax's helmet was hooked up to it, every now and then it would make a beeping noise that would wake him up enough not to pass out right there. He'd dropped it down the stairs in his hurry to get everything prepared, and now it was broken. His plan was to get everything prepared and go look for them in their superhero gear. However, it was proving difficult. Gogo was at work, as was Honey Lemon. Wasabi was babysitting his younger cousin. Fred was not answering any of Hiro's texts.

Hiro got the indication that they thought he was being dramatic. He understood, but at the same time he was angry at them for not taking him seriously. Gogo had promised that they'd find them, but after searching the school and surrounding areas for an hour she had left to go to work. Within half an hour, the rest of them had left him alone in the snow. He knew that something was going on, but he couldn't think for the life of him what. Or, maybe he was just losing his mind and they were at a party or something.

It had been five hours since Rena and Tadashi disappeared. Five hours since Hiro had seen Caine for the first time since he tried to kill him. For all he knew, Rena and Tadashi were dead.

He was just dozing off again when his laptop pinged with an email alert. He moved his hand onto the mouse and opened a new tab. The email was addressed to him, but he couldn't recognise the address. There was no subject line, and no message. The only thing attached was a video link.

'Probably just a virus.' He muttered to himself, almost clicking off it. However, curiosity got the better of him and he clicked the 'play' icon in the bottom left hand corner.

For a second, it didn't register what the video was actually of. The camera was aimed at a dirty wall; clearly handheld as it was shaking slightly. He could hear laughing in the background. At first, he thought it was some kind of unfunny prank that brought him unpleasantly back to high school. Then the camera turned and focused on a girl in a chair. A man was stood over her, smirking and with his arms folded. Hiro squinted at the image, recognising both figures. He'd definitely seen the man at a botfight before, but he couldn't quite place his finger on the girl. That was, until she lifted her head and the penny dropped.

'Holy shit!' He exclaimed loudly to the empty room. He stood up so fast he saw stars. His foot caught on the chair and he went crashing to the floor, the sounds of Rena still playing on the computer. His heart was racing and he quickly clamped his hands over his ears in an attempt to block them out. Okay. So he was right. He knew it! Fuck.

'Hiro, what seems to be the problem?' Baymax had come to life and waddled over to him.

The video had stopped and Hiro leapt to his feet. 'Baymax! Right okay... We need... We need...' He faltered. He needed to act - fast. What he did next was crucial. 'I need... DAMNIT!' He kicked the table so hard his eyes watered.

'Hiro, my scan detects that you are feeling angry. I can recommend-'

'SHUT UP!' He yelled, 'I need more TIME!'

He closed the email and looked at the process of the robot's helmet. 54% complete. He needed it to work, there was no way he was going in there without Baymax's superhero gear. Besides, he needed the helmet to work in order to scan for Rena's location. He turned away from the computer and tugged at his hair, trying to form a plan in his head. Rena might already be dead. And Tadashi... Why wasn't he in the video? This was his fault. All of this was his fault. He didn't know the full story, but he knew enough that this had something to do with botfighting. It had to! Why else would that guy be at SFIT?

As much as he hated the idea of bringing anyone else into it, he knew there was no way in hell that he could do any of this alone. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and frantically scrolled down, clicking call on the first number he saw.

'This had better be quick. I told you that I'm at work!'

'Rena and Tadashi still haven't come home-'

Gogo sighed, 'Hiro, I-'

'No. Shut up and listen to me.'

'Wh-'

'They're in danger.'

'Hiro-'

'YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!' He was yelling now. Screaming at the top of his lungs, in fact. Thank god Aunt Cass was at her friend's house. 'They're in danger! They're gonna get killed and it's... and it's my fault! I've killed them! I've fucking killed them! There's this... this video...'

'Calm down. What video? Hiro...what video are you talking about?'

He was hyperventilating. Tears were streaming down his face and he couldn't get another word out. The realisation was beginning to sink in and he felt a wave of nausea so intense the room was spinning. The phone dropped out of his hand and landed on the floor with a dull thud he barely registered.

His eyes drifted back over to the monitor. 57% complete. Baymax was watching him curiously. 'Hiro, are you alright?'

'No...no... I don't...' He gasped, one hand on his chest and the other pulling at his hair. He could feel his heart hammering frantically. Fast enough that it felt like it was going to explode. 'Baymax...'

He squeezed his eyes tight shut, his mind working overtime to form some kind of plan. All he had to do was wait until the helmet had finished. What if it didn't work though? What if Baymax couldn't locate Rena? What is she's dead by the time he gets there? Where's Tadashi? Are they even in San Fransokyo?

'Hiro-' Baymax hugged him from behind him, surrounding the teen in vinyl. Hiro shoved at his arm to push him off, but he was no match for Baymax. Slowly, he turned a soft red as he grew warmer.

Hiro patted his arm affectionately. He had to admit it, it was working. The panic lifted just enough so that it no longer felt as though he'd just run a marathon. 'We're running out of time.'

'Hiro, would you like me to contact your friends?'

'Wait-'

'Your friends have been contacted.'

'Nice to see some things don't change.'  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Rena was dying.

Sure, it was happening slowly. But this was the one thing that she knew for certain. Within hours, she would be dead.

At some point, she'd given up trying to fight it. Eventually, she'd just sat limp and let them hit her. What good would it be trying to fight it? She knew she was letting them win. That's what they wanted to happen. But honestly? Rena didn't care. Her body was slowly shutting down and she didn't give two shits.

After a couple of hours, Caine had come in. For a second, Rena thought she was saved. But then he just looked at her and walked straight out the door. Later, she learnt that he was working for them. He hadn't come to save her. Maybe he had come to laugh at her. Taunt her. She was expecting him to come back and deliver the final blow.

Actually, when she thought about it, seeing Caine was probably around the time that she gave up. It hurt. She thought they were friends! Sure, he was a bit of a prick. But so was she. And she'd grown to love him, as she thought he had for her.

Everything was shit. Nobody could be relied upon to do anything right. Why even bother trying to stay alive? At this point, who cared if she lived or died? Caine had betrayed her. Tadashi had betrayed her and brought her to the place that would lead to her death. Hiro had gone behind her back and gone botfighting. Clara had kissed her then moved away to France without a word since.

She was in the corner of the room in a heap, her back pressed against the damp wall. The muscled guy had missed when he had swung at her with a baseball bat, instead smacking the chair and reducing it to a pile of splinters. They'd laughed it off and instead just kicked her to the corner of the room, probably knowing that she didn't have the motivation nor the energy to move. She barely had the strength to move the chair leg that was digging uncomfortably into her side.

'You're not giving up this easily are you? After everything we've been through?'

Rena's eyes flew open to see Hiro crouched next to her. He had a small smile on his face, as though this was an everyday occurrence. 'Come on, Hamada. You're better than this.'

'You're not... you're not real... are you?' Rena rasped.

Hiro shook his head, 'a figment of your own imagination. Duh. Now come on. Get up.'

'I literally can't.'

'Yes you can.'

'Hiro!' She coughed, spitting out another mouthful of blood. 'I can't!'

'I'm in your head. You're disagreeing with yourself. A sign of madness, I reckon.'

Rena didn't reply. She closed her eyes again and tried to block him out. Of course her own brain would do this against her.

'He's right.'

'Fuck off Tadashi.'

Tadashi was next to Hiro, also peering down at her with some mild interest. 'You're not gonna die, are you? Shit Rena, you need to fight this.'

'Fight WHAT exactly? I can't just... decide when to live.'

'You've given up,' Hiro said, 'you can't do that.'

'Why?'

'Because you told me that there's always something to live for. And there is.'

'...Shut... Up.'

'Rena, you can get yourself out of this. You're strong.' Tadashi encouraged.

'You brought me here!'

'Which means he's in danger.'

Her two brothers had disappeared, instead it was Gogo. 'They're in danger.'

'They're roped into this, somehow.' Honey Lemon added.

'You can save them.' Said Wasabi.

'Rena! Be your own superhero!' Fred exclaimed.

Rena sighed. By the time she had opened her mouth to reply, the apparitions of her friends had vanished. Instead, Clara was stood above her. 'This isn't the Rena I know.'

She scoffed, then winced at the sudden movement. 'The Rena you knew is dead.'

'I know you. This isn't you. You can pull through this.'

'I don't think I can. I don't think I want to.'

'Okay then. Don't do it for you, do it for them. Your friends are right - they're both in danger.'

'Why should I care? I'm only here because of them?'

'Maybe. But you do care. You love them and you care a lot more than you care to admit. You can't die and leave them Rena, you just can't.'

'I think I can.'

'You're disagreeing with yourself again. Remember... I'm only in your head...'

And then she disappeared.

Rena's nose and ribs were broken. Her left eye was blackened and swollen. She was missing two teeth. Her head was aching and she felt terribly ill. She was pretty sure her wrist was sprained. Half her body was covered in bruises and cuts.

And yet, from somewhere, she found the strength to sit up. Because those weird apparitions were right. Damnit, they were right. Hiro and Tadashi were in terrible, terrible danger. She didn't dare think about what would happen to them if she died. Similarly, she didn't want to think about what would happen if one of them died. If they died now, she would never forgive herself. Ever.

'For fucks sake,' she muttered to herself, 'they better had appreciate this.'

And, with tears streaming down her face and many curses and cries of mingled pain and fury, she rose to her feet.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! Hope everyone's having a good festive period despite everything. I've just had a negative covid test back so I'm doing good!   
> Also thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments - especially human_probably. I may not respond to them all but be rest assured that I do see them and they truly do lighten up my day! It's so great knowing that people like my work :)  
> So yeah, if you're enjoying please leave feedback. Hey, even if you hate it I want to know what you think.  
> Thank you <3

'HIRO!'

Gogo was stood in the doorway to the garage, motorcycle helmet in one hand. She looked impressive, stood tall against the night. But she was also angry and confused.

Hiro looked up from where he was sitting by the monitor. It had been stuck on 64% for fifteen minutes and he was beginning to panic again. 'Heyyyy Gogo.' He said hesitantly.

She threw her helmet onto the ground and stormed over to him, hands on hips. She looked at him for a long moment before throwing her arms around him. 'For fucks sake, you scared me!'

Then, in true Gogo fashion she let go of him and slugged him on the arm. 'What the HELL is going on?'

'I'm sorry! I just... I'll show you.'

She perched on the edge of the desk as Hiro clicked onto his emails and located the video he was sent. He clicked on the play icon and looked away as the video played.

Gogo watched Rena get hit with a horrified expression on her face. Halfway through, she seized the mouse and clicked off it. Her hand was shaking. 'Holy shit.'

'Yeah,' Hiro said numbly, 'holy shit.'

'I can't... Oh my God...'

'Baymax has contacted everyone else. I don't know if they're coming or not.'

'They will. They better fucking had.'

Hiro's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and squinted at the text on the screen.

Fred

Hi, I'm not coming. Can't. Extremely busy.

'Gogo... Come read this.'

She walked over to him and grabbed the phone, reading the text. Her face reflected the same confusion that Hiro was feeling. 'That's not...'

'That's not Fred. Yes.'

'That's definitely not Fred. Busy doing what? Since when has Fred used proper grammar? Since when would he ever pass up the chance to do anything like this?'

'Which means...'

They looked at one another with horror. In unison, they said 'they've got Fred!'  
\---------------------------------------------------------  
Rena was stood leaning against the wall in the filthy room. A chair leg was clutched in one hand and she was positioned next to the door. Her head was pressed against the wall, listening intently to the voices outside. Was she going to be able to overpower the men outside?

Probably not. But she'd be damned if she didn't at least try.

The door flung open, almost smacking her in the face. She skirted around the edge, just making out a huge black coat and a flash of orange. She stood behind the man, holding the chair leg above her head, ready to strike when-

'Get off me!'

A familiar figure was thrown onto the floor. Rena gasped loudly and dropped the wood onto the floor.

'Fred! Oh my god! Holy shit!'

Despite her own injuries, she practically threw herself down onto the floor next to him. 'Are you okay? What have they done? Fred!'

He sat up, coughing. She noticed that he also had a black eye developing, and he was holding his arm in a way that suggested broken bones. 'Rena!' He gasped, eyes wide with shock.

She threw her arms around him, careful of his injured arm. 'Oh my god, what did they do to you?'

'What did they do to you?! You look awful!'

She laughed, but it quickly turned into a sob. Soon, she was crying onto his shoulder. 'What the fuck is going on?'

Fred hugged her back tightly, clearly unsure of what to say. 'I don't know... I don't know...'

Rena pulled away and wiped her eyes on her bloody sleeve. 'Tadashi.' She whispered.

Fred nodded. 'Yeah. He uh... barged in when I was in the middle of a game. Stole my phone. I was just about to go to your house.'

'Why you were going to my house?'

'Because I got one of those crisis alerts from Baymax.'

'Why would you... Oh.' She said softly, 'oh.'

Fred bit back a sob. 'Why would Tadashi do this?'

'I don't know. I really... I really don't.'

'He wouldn't though. He would never.'

'Well... He did.'

'It's fun in comics. Not in... Not in real life though.'

Rena laughed dryly. 'No. Not fun at all.'

Fred cleared his throat awkwardly and looked at his arm, grimacing. 'Do you reckon it's broken?'

'Let's have a look,' Rena shifted her position and examined his arm carefully. She placed her hand on it and pressed down gently. The slight pressure made him howl. 'Yeah. I'm pretty certain it's broken.'

He sighed, 'thought so.'

'We need to get out of here.' Rena said, standing up with some difficulty. 'You also need a sling.'

'What about you? Your arm looks pretty fucked as well.'

'Sprained. At least, I think.'

'Right. What's the difference?'

She shrugged, 'different kind of injury. Besides, it's irrelevant.'

'Ah. Okay. Do you... need a bandage or something? There's uhh... quite a lot of blood there...'

Rena took her hoodie off with some difficulty, considering her ribs and arm. 'I'll survive.' Funny how half an hour ago, she didn't even consider surviving an option. 'Do me a favour and grab the sleeve with your good arm.'

Fred stood and grabbed it, 'okay... why?'

Rena stepped backwards and pulled. Luckily, it was an old hoodie and the sleeve tore off with ease. She grabbed it and beckoned Fred forwards. Gingerly, she wrapped his arm up in a semi-decent sling. 'It's not perfect, but it'll have to do for now.'

'Thanks! Uhh... Now what?'

'You said you got a crisis alert? That means they'll be on their way.'

'I mean... Hopefully.'

'We have one job now - get out of here, alive.'

'Can't we just wait for them to come?'

'And endanger them? Fred, we might as well try. Save anyone else getting hurt.'

'Okay, true. And we are superheroes, after all. Right?'

Rena smiled. 'Yeah. Sure. Superheroes.'  
\--------------------------------------------------  
86% complete.

Hiro, Gogo, Wasabi and Honey Lemon were sitting in the Hamada's garage. They were all kitted out in their superhero gear, crowded around Hiro's computer watching the number slowly rise.

'I still can't believe that this is actually happening,' Wasabi sighed, 'I mean, it's just our luck isn't it?'

Honey Lemon nodded, 'gosh, I really hope they're okay!'

Hiro was drumming his fingers on the countertop, 'they're not.'

'No need to be such a pessimist.' Gogo said, elbowing him, 'they're okay.'

Hiro sighed, 'I can't believe they got Fred. Why Fred? Out of all of us?'

'He's rich. And his dad is a superhero - with a lot of enemies.' Wasabi said, 'I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's why.'

'Why Rena though? And why Tadashi?' Honey Lemon questioned.

Hiro gave a weak laugh. 'I know why.'

'Humour us then.' Gogo said.

'They want to get to me. I can't be sure, but there's this guy. Uhhh, Fournier.. Or something. Anyway, he's like, biggest name in the game. Like, he can beat experienced players with his eyes shut. He's also a psycho. More than once he's killed competitors in the ring. With his bare hands. Everyone's terrified of him. And they know his name. The guys always say not to mess with him. Because you'll regret it.'

Gogo groaned, 'and let me guess... you beat him?'

Hiro was quiet for a long moment and then nodded slowly. 'Yeah. I was cocky. I knew I was good, I could beat him easy. And it... it was easy. Well, he wasn't happy. Like, at all. As soon as the game ended he went after me with his... henchmen, or whatever. And this woman. Well, this guy had me pinned but I managed to break his nose.'

'Good on you.'

Hiro grimaced. 'That guy was Caine. That's why I freaked out when I saw him earlier. Now it makes sense why he's trying to avoid me.'

Honey Lemon gasped, 'all this time, Rena's been friends with this guy that wants you dead?'

Gogo was shaking with anger, 'I'll kill him!'

'Yeah, so then this woman had a knife to my throat. I was fully convinced I was gonna die. Fournier aimed his knife at me and was about to throw when I managed to break free. I was running for my life, but I did still hear what happened when I left.'

'What happened?' Wasabi asked quietly.

Hiro had tears in his eyes, 'the knife... It killed the woman. I could hear screaming. I should've known they'd come after me.'

'Jesus christ.'

'I haven't told anyone that before. But now... Rena and Tadashi and Fred are at his mercy. And it's all my fault.'

Honey Lemon hugged him tightly, crying as well. 'It's not your fault!'

'I shouldn't have gone up against him!'

'Hiro, you're fourteen. Jesus christ, this guy shouldn't go after a kid.'

'I know! But... still.'

Wasabi placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, 'it's okay, we'll get them out.'

'Yeah, we're a lot better than some mediocre criminals.' Gogo said.

Hiro looked back at the screen. 92%. 'Do we actually have a plan of action?'

'We can figure that out once we get there. We need a chance to do some surveillance and figure out how many guys they've got.' Gogo said.

'We do need an actual plan though... We all know what happens when there is no plan.' Wasabi said nervously.

'And we need Baymax to take care of any injuries. Going by the video, Rena's probably pretty hurt. It's probably safe to assume that the others are as well.' Honey Lemon said, 'we can't have him fighting.'

Hiro nodded. 'That judgement can be made when we get there. The priority is getting them out alive.'

'Yeah, of course.'

94%. 'I'm sorry for getting you guys roped into this.' Hiro said quietly.

Gogo punched him on the arm, 'don't apologise! We'd do this any day. No matter what.'

'They're our best friends.' Said Wasabi, 'of course we're gonna help.'

They sat and watched the number slowly rise. 96%. 97%. 98%. 99%.

When it had completed, Hiro yanked the wire out of the helmet and ran over to Baymax. He jammed the helmet onto his head. 'There! Is it working?'

'My sensors are operational.'

Hiro breathed a sigh of relief. 'Good. Now, let's get up somewhere high to scan the city.'

Baymax stepped into the cold outside and Hiro clambered onto his back. He stretched his hand out for Honey Lemon, who climbed on next to him. Gogo got on the other side.

'Yeah, sure. I don't mind being dangled in the air again.' Wasabi said wearily.

'Sorry dude, but we can't change positions now!'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever.'

'Okay Baymax - rocket boosters!'


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI HI HI!!! I'm just saying that I'm gonna do a QnA chapter (y'all ask questions and then I'll write up a chapter of the characters answering!) They can be anything from their favourite colour to their worst memory and can be specific to one character or a broad question for all of them. Feel free to ask more than one question - I'd more than happily take a hundred questions from one person!! So yeah, I hope everyone had a good Christmas :)  
> Keep leaving kudos and comments!! Please!! It genuinely means the world to me!!  
> THANK YOU!

Rena and Fred were stood next to one another, each gripping a chair leg. In her injured arm, Rena clutched the rope that she'd been tied to the chair with. She was not feeling confident - they were both extremely weak, and injured. Fred, however, had gained back some of his confidence. He was stood tall, that mischievous glint back in his eyes. He seemed to have quickly gotten over the initial shock of being kidnapped.

'How are we going to get the guy in here?'

'I don't know,' Rena said.

They were planning on overpowering the guard that stood outside the door in order to sneak away. Rena was going to do her best to tie him up so they could escape. However, they had no actual plan on the best way to do this.

'I mean, we could just kick the door down,' Fred said, kicking the air to demonstrate.

'Yeah... But we want to try and make as little noise as possible. If they hear us breaking the door down, more guys might get suspicious and come down to see what's going on.'

'Damnit, you're right.'

Rena looked at him, an idea forming in her head. 'Actually, I've an idea. Fred, lie on the floor. Hide the wood. Look dead.'

'What?'

'Just.. Do it.'

'Well, you're lucky that my acting skills are immaculate! You know, I actually played- alright okay!' He was stopped by the look on Rena's face and lay down onto the floor, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. 'Dead people have their eyes open... right?'

'Yeah, they do. Don't be panicked when I start screaming.'

'Eh?'

She cleared her throat and put on her best face of despair. To be fair, given the situation, this was not particularly difficult. 'OH MY GOD!' She screamed as loudly as she could, the words scratching her raw throat, 'HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE! HELP!'

There was a banging on the door. 'SHUT UP!' The guard yelled from the other side.

'BUT HE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD!' Rena screeched back, kicking Fred so he looked more dead. He seemed to understand what was going on and went limp, his eyes sliding shut. 'PLEASE! HE'S DIED!'

The door burst open, 'that better hadn't be true! We're under strict orders to keep you alive!'

Rena forced the tears to come, (again, not difficult) 'he's not waking up! He has no pulse! He's died!' She shrieked frantically.

The guard stepped into the room and glared at Fred lying on the floor, 'If Matt's killed this kid, I'll never hear the end of it.' He muttered to himself, bending down onto the floor. His grimy fingers moved to Fred's neck. 'Wait... Hang on... There's a pulse...'

'TAKE THIS!' Fred yelled, sitting up and headbutting the guard. Hard.

'What the FUCK?!' The guard spluttered, holding his bleeding nose.

Rena gripped the wood tightly in her hand and smacked him on the back of his head. He slumped forwards and she did it again for good measure. 'Well. That wasn't too hard. Nice one Fred.'

'Awww, thanks! You know-'

'Later. Help me tie up the motherfucker.'

They rolled him onto his stomach and hauled his arms onto his back, tying them together in a tight knot. It was difficult work, seeing as the guard was so heavy and they both only had one arm that was functional. Then, Rena grabbed the other piece of rope so they could tie his legs together.

'There,' she said, standing up and examining their work, 'not bad, Fred. Not bad at all.'

Fred nodded, 'this is actually quite exciting. Scary, obviously. But also pretty cool. I feel like I'm in a comic!'

Rena rolled her eyes. Only Fred would make this situation into something cool and exciting. 'Sure. Whatever keeps you motivated.'

'Should we... Leave?'

Rena nodded, 'yeah. One sec, though.'

She stepped over the guard and looked at his face. Then, with absolutely no hesitation, she brought her foot down as hard as she could. There was a satisfying crack underneath her shoe. She carefully wiped the blood from her boot onto the back of his shirt and looked up at Fred. 'Okay. I'm ready to go now.'  
\--------------------------------------------  
'Scanning.'

They were stood on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. The sky was dark and the lights were creating a haze of rainbow below them. It would have been peaceful, if it weren't for the fact that lives were at stake. Also... Wasabi.

He was crouched on the centre of the roof. 'HOW high did you say we were? Oh my god, can we get down? PLEASE?'

'Wasabi!' Gogo snapped, 'shut up!'

'How long is this going to take?' Honey Lemon asked anxiously, looking at Baymax as he slowly scanned the city.

'Hopefully not that long-'

'Scan complete. My scan detects that Rena, Fred and Tadashi are in that warehouse.' He pointed towards a large, brown building near the river. From way up on the top of the building, they could scarcely see it in detail.

Hiro knew that it was on the bad side of town - the side anyone decent always avoided if they could. He'd been down there a lot. 'Is there anyone else there? Has to be, right?'

'Yes. My scan detects other signs of human life. However, I cannot be sure how many.'

'Is Rena still alive? Tadashi? Fred?'

'Yes.'

Hiro breathed a sigh of relief. 'Okay. Good. Alright, everyone back on.'

They got back onto Baymax and he slowly lifted into the sky, Wasabi still quivering with fear.

'Your hands are shaking.'

'What?' Hiro turned to look at Gogo, who was looking at him with a concerned expression on her face.

Gogo grabbed Hiro's gloved hand, 'shaking. Your hands are shaking.'

He shrugged, 'it's cold.'

'I can see through your bullshit, don't even start.'

He laughed, 'since when do you care?! I thought you were all... I don't know... Feelings are gross!'

Gogo blinked, 'I'm trying to look out for you. I mean, I could just go with the original plan and tell you to get a grip.'

'Do that then.'

She elbowed him, 'woman up. It's gonna be fine.'

'...Okay.'

'Hiro!' Honey Lemon said, nudging his side, 'Gogo's just trying to be a good friend. We care about you, and we're worried as well. There's no need to push us away.'

'Right. Sorry.'

'You don't mean that.' Gogo replied, shaking her head. 'God, you're impossible.'

'If you're sick of me, imagine how sick I am?! I mean, I'm the one that's gotta deal with my own crap 24/7!'

Honey Lemon smiled softly, 'we're not sick of you.'

'Not yet.' Gogo added, 'although if you keep it up I will not hesitate to punch you.'

'I don't know what you want me to do - cry?'

'If that's what you need to do.' Honey Lemon said, putting a hand on his shoulder, 'just... We're for you. That's it, Hiro. If you need anything, we're here. You don't have to hide.'

'Why are we having this conversation now? Of all places?'

Gogo cleared her throat. 'Because some things need to be said! I guess it just takes a life threatening situation in order to realise your priorities.'

Hiro stared ahead at the night sky. 'In case we don't come back.' He said in a small voice.

Gogo nodded, sighing heavily. 'In case we don't come back.'

'But we will!' Honey Lemon said brightly, 'we have to! All of us. We will.'

'Here's hoping.' Hiro replied miserably.

Gogo opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by Baymax. 'We are here.'

He slowly descended onto the low roof of the warehouse. They jumped off and stood on the rooftop, seemingly unsure of what to do with themselves.

Gogo wasted no time in quickly dashing around the perimeter of the roof. 'Nobody outside. No guards or anyone patrolling.'

Hiro nodded, surveying the huge roof they were stood on. 'This place is massive. They're gonna be hard to find.'

'We have Baymax to scan for them.' Honey Lemon said reassuringly, 'it'll take no time at all.'

'So what now?' Wasabi asked, still shaken by being so far above the ground.

Hiro shrugged, 'now? We go into battle.'

'Okay but... Do we have a plan?'

'Well, we need to get ourselves in quietly. We sneak around to the back of the building and you cut your way in so the rest of us can follow. Baymax and I will look for Rena, Fred and Tadashi. You, Gogo and Honey Lemon will survey the rest of the building and take out any guards as you go.'

'That's a horrible plan.' Gogo said, 'there are literally so many things that could go wrong.'

'Well, you got any better ideas?'

'No.'

'Are we all clear on the plan then?'

'There is no coherent plan!'

Hiro sighed, 'we have ear pieces! We can communicate! We're running out of time and we need to get in there. Before it's too late.'

'It'll work.' Honey Lemon said confidently, 'I believe in us.'

Gogo sighed, 'if this goes wrong I will kill you Hamada!'

Hiro smiled, 'nice to see you're back.'

Gogo gestured to the side of the building and Honey Lemon threw down a pink ball. It created a huge foam cushion, meaning they could safely jump down from the roof onto the ground. (Wasabi needed a lot of convincing).

They ran to the back of the building, Wasabi running his hands along the wall to find a weak patch. His blades slid through the concrete like it was butter and before they knew it they were standing in a darkly lit, dingy room.

'Baymax,' Hiro hissed, 'any chance you scan the building for any signs of them?'

Baymax stood still for a second, then shook his head. 'Something is interfering with my scanner. I cannot be sure, but it appears to be some kind of electromagnetic wave.'

'What the fuck?' Hiro muttered, 'electromagnetic wave?'

'We can't dwell on that for too long.' Gogo said, shrugging.

'Yeah let's worry about that when we get out of here!' Wasabi said shakily.

Hiro nodded, but his mind was going a hundred miles an hour. What was Fournier up to? What kind of experiment was he doing that involved electromagnetic waves? His heart rate was beginning to accelerate again. Whatever it was, he knew he did not want to find out.

'So what do we do now?' Honey Lemon asked, 'should we split up?'

'I say we stick with the original plan.' Hiro said, 'Baymax and I will find Rena, Fred and Tadashi. You guys take care of any guards. If you find them, remember we have earpieces. From the looks of that video, they're probably going to need Baymax.'

Gogo nodded, 'what about this... Fournier guy?'

Hiro shuddered, 'try and stay away from him. Trust me, you really don't wanna mess with him.'

'Got it.' She replied, nodding.

'Well...' Honey Lemon said, 'see you on the other side. Good luck!'

'Please be careful.' Wasabi said.

'I will. You too, guys. Try not to get hurt.'

Hiro sighed, 'I'll try my best.'

He saluted the three of them then ducked out the door, Baymax close behind him. He turned to the left and ran as quickly as he dared, afraid to make any noise. This place was like a maze. There were endless twists and turns. Hiro had no idea how they were getting out of there.

'Baymax,' he hissed as they walked down another long stretch of corridor, 'are you sure you can't detect anything at all?'

'Apologies Hiro. I cannot.'

Hiro sighed. This was going to be harder than anticipated. His only glimmer of hope was that everyone was still alive. And he hadn't heard from the other three. No news was good news... Right?

'Hiro, my scan detects that you are feeling highly stressed.'

'I thought it wasn't working?!'

'I cannot seem to detect anything from patients far away. You are the only one.'

'Huh... Weird.' Hiro wracked his brains for any possible causes. 'We're dealing with something new, aren't we?'

'Yes. My scanners were not affected when I was far away, but now they are.'

'Strange.' Hiro said. 'Very strange indeed.'


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to submit your questions! I'm accepting anything and everything! 300 hundred questions from one person! Deep questions! Asking what Rena's favourite colour is! What Fred's deepest, darkest fear is! Whatever! I'm gonna make the deadline the 5th January 2021 - so you have a week from now! Go wild! Please!
> 
> Also, I hope you like these odd little dynamics. I've tried to shake things up a bit - Fred and Rena, Gogo and Hiro, etc. I've really enjoyed writing it even if Gogo and Fred are a little out of character. Anyway, I hope you liked it nevertheless :))))

'Fred! Can you try and be a little quieter... Please?!'

Fred stopped humming and rolled his eyes, 'fine! If you don't want this to be our superhero adventure then I'll stop!'

'Fred, these people want us dead-'

'All the more reason to keep our spirits up!'

'What?!'

Rena rolled her eyes and looked round the corner. 'We're clear.'

Rena was exhausted. The adrenaline was wearing off and her entire body was aching. Her nose was still trickling blood and her eyes were itching for sleep. She knew that if they ran into anyone else, they certainly wouldn't win. Which is why she was so keen to keep a low profile. Rena was hoping that her and Fred could sneak out of the building without encountering anyone else. However, this was proving to be a difficult task. For one thing, the building was like a maze. There were so many corridors and so many possible turns. More than once, they'd walked into a corridor that they'd only just left. The whole place was stinking as well, the walls were slick with dirt and slightly damp. Secondly, Fred kept singing. Truthfully, she didn't mind it. But she was also very afraid of getting caught, and his singing was doing no favours in helping them to stay hidden.

She waved him forwards and crept down the empty corridor. Rena reached the end of the corridor before Fred and craned her neck around the corner. Her ears pricked up at the sound of voices and she threw her arm out. Fred, seemingly not paying any attention, crashed into her and began to swore very loudly. Suddenly, the voices stopped and Rena could hear footsteps in their place.

'Shit!' She whispered, 'that's my fault. Fred! They're coming!'

Fred's eyes widened in alarm and he backed up rapidly, almost tripping over his own feet. Rena grabbed his non injured arm and quickly looked back down the corridor. 'There's a door! Quick!'

They ran as quickly as they dared, the footsteps getting closer. A man yelled 'WHO'S THERE? WE KNOW SOMEONE IS THERE!' in a loud voice. Rena clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent a scream.

Fred reached the door first, throwing himself against the side. 'It's locked!'

Rena wanted to cry. 'I'd kick it down but then they'd know where we went!'

Fred studied the lock. 'Do you have a hairpin?'

The footsteps were getting closer. The man would be on them within seconds. Rena's heart was racing.

'I don't... Possibly?' Rena fished around in her birds nest of hair for a second before she produced a wiry pin out of nowhere. She handed it to Fred.

He jammed it into the door, his tongue stuck out in concentration. 'I've nearly got it.' He hissed.

'Well... Hurry!'

Fred yanked the pin and the door swung open. He leapt forward, grabbing Rena and pulling her inside with him. The door swung shut behind them, leaving them alone in darkness. The room was tiny, and they were pressed against one another. Rena could feel his breath on the side of her neck.

The man who heard them stumbled past the door. 'OI! I KNOW THERE WAS SOMEONE HERE!' He screamed as he charged down the corridor, thankfully missing the door. Rena almost laughed. Not one of these guards had two braincells to rub together.

'That was close.' Fred muttered.

'Yeah. Way too close. Have you always been able to pick locks?'

Fred laughed softly. 'Yeah. Ever since I was 13. Thought it would look cool. It definitely wasn't.'

'Well, it might have just saved our lives. It's extremely cool.'

'...Do you think we're gonna die?' For the first time, Fred sounded truly afraid.

Rena sighed. 'I don't... I don't know. Hopefully not, but there's always that chance, I guess.'

'You almost died alone in that room.'

Rena blinked, 'I mean... Probably. How do you even know that?'

'I could just... Tell.'

'Ah. Okay.' Rena cleared her throat awkwardly, 'we're in deep shit now. If that guy is going around screaming about intruders. They're gonna be looking for us.'

'Ah. Shit.'

'Yeah. We'd best get moving... and quick.'

'Okay.'

Fred twisted to the side and grabbed a hold of the handle, pushing it open with some difficulty. They spilled out into the corridor, blinking in the light. Fred grabbed Rena's hand and pulled her in the opposite direction in which they'd just run.

'Where are we going?!' Rena hissed as they ran.

'I'm just trying to get us far away; I don't know!' Fred replied, 'you're the smart one! Think of something!'

'Fred, we can't keep running forever! I'm literally gonna pass out-'

'Then think of something!'

Rena stopped, almost crashing into Fred's back. Her chest was heaving as she gulped in air. Her head was spinning. Her arm was aching dully. Her ribs were on fire. She closed her eyes and drew a shape in the air with her finger. Muttering something under her breath, she traced a path through the air. They were next to the river. Going by the dampness of the walls, the river was on the East side. This was an old building, going by the rotting walls and lamps as opposed to modern ceiling fixtures. What did old buildings have? A staircase down to the river. They needed to head East.

'Rena... What are you-'

She gasped, her eyes snapping open. 'East!' She breathed, grabbing his hand. She drew an imaginary clock in the air, the way her Father had taught her. Draw the clock, with the hour hand pointing to the time to create the North South line. She pointed towards the East. 'That way!'

'What... Why?!'

'Fred!' She gasped, 'this is an old building. Yeah?'

'I mean... yeah? I think so?'

'And what do old buildings by the river always have?'

'Rena, I don't fucking know! How did you know it's by the river?'

'The walls are damp.'

'Okay but how does that-'

'There's a stretch of old warehouses in an abandoned retail park by the river. Balance of probability, that's where we are.'

'Surely that's a coincidence-'

'There's no such thing as coincidences! The universe is rarely so lazy!' She turned to Fred and grinned, 'now I ask you - what's on the side of the building?'

Fred's eyes lit up. 'OH! The staircase!'

'THE STAIRCASE!' Rena said, whooping. The adrenaline was returning and the pain was beginning to numb, making it slightly easier to run. 'They used it centuries ago when they needed to do the washing! Of course, they were more often used in houses. But you'd be very unlucky if there wasn't one here.' She ran a hand along the wall, and, just as expected, it came away damp.

Voices were behind them. It seemed the lunatic from before had announced there were intruders. Rena could hear people running, and the sounds of arguing.

'Rena-' Fred gasped, holding his side, 'we need to slow down!'

Rena nodded, despite her fear of the people behind her. Her ribs were aching horribly. If it weren't for Fred running next to her, she may have been tempted to curl up on the ground and sleep. 'Just keep heading East.' She muttered, more to herself than to the boy next to her.

After about ten minutes, Rena came to a stop outside a huge metal door. Fred's arm was draped around her shoulder. At some point, he'd tripped and managed to twist his ankle. They must have looked a right sight. A teenage girl dragging her injured friend along a filthy corridor, tears streaming down both of their faces. Rena could scarcely move to open the door. 'This is it, Freddie.'

'Finally.' Fred gasped, his face white.

Rena stretched her hand out, her fingers just grazing the door-

'Not so fast.'

Rena gasped loudly, her grip on Fred slipping. He crashed to the floor, swearing loudly as he landed on his ankle. She whirled around, unsurprised to see Jason Fournier stood opposite her.

Damnit. They were so, so close.

Rena glared at him, wordlessly moving to help her friend. 'Fred-'

'Move again and I'll kill him.'

Rena froze, her hand in the air. 'Kill... Who? Fred?' He had no weapon. Surely he wasn't about to kill this teenager with his bare hands? This guy was a psychopath... but he still had class.

Fournier laughed. 'No, my dear. I will kill him.' His hand gestured to the left of him, where someone stepped out of the shadows.

Caine. His arm was around Tadashi's neck, his other hand pressing a gun to the side of her brother's head.

'One wrong move, and your darling brother dies.'

Rena's words had failed her. She stood there, hands in the air. Staring at her brother. He wasn't crying. He wasn't pleading. He didn't even look afraid. Instead, he stared straight ahead as though he was bored by the whole proceedings. Did he even see her? Was he even there?

And Caine. The boy who was so sweet, so kind. So interested in her, so keen to know more about her. He was her friend. And what was all that for? So he could use it all against her? He had tried to kiss her! Was she an idiot for thinking this was an indication that he liked her? She liked him - loved him, in fact. Platonically, of course. But what did that matter? She loved Caine. And now he was looking at her, with a gun to her brother's head. She'd hoped when she'd seen him in that room that it was just another hallucination. A fabricated image of her exhausted mind. But no. She'd held onto that glimmer of hope like a lifeline. But it was true. He'd betrayed her.

His hands were shaking. Why?

'Oh dear. What an unfortunate turn of events. One click of the fingers, that's all it takes. Bang. Dead.'

Why didn't Tadashi look afraid? Why was he looking at the wall behind her head as though she wasn't there? Did he even care about her anymore? Why did EVERYONE have to let her down? Why had Caine pretended to be her friend? Why had Hiro gone botfighting in the first place? What the hell had he even done? Why did he try to kill himself? Why did they NEVER talk about it? Why was she thinking about this now? She was going to die. She knew that. What was Aunt Cass going to do when she was found dead? When Tadashi was found dead? How was Hiro going to cope? Was he going to die too? What about the rest of her friends? Why had Clara moved away? Why didn't she text her back? Was Rena going to die without ever having lived? Was she going to see her parents?

She took a deep breath, wanting to scream. 'Please don't do that.' She said quietly, her voice shaking with supressed rage.

Jason clicked his fingers and Rena jumped backwards, almost landing on Fred. However, instead of her friend shooting her brother, two burly men stepped forwards. How many men was he hiding around the corner?

'Boys. Take him up to greet the others.'

'Others?' Rena yelped, her mind racing. Christ - who else had he captured?!

The two men stepped forwards, cracking their fists menacingly. One of them stepped towards her and brushed her aside so easily it was as though she was made of paper. She smacked into the stone wall, wincing.

They yanked Fred up by his arms. Rena cringed as he let out a cry of pain, his arm being twisted out of his sling. 'Fred! Don't hurt him!'

'Don't worry about me Rena! I'll be fine!' Fred gasped, 'I'll be fine!'

They dragged him out of earshot, his cries of pain and anger still echoing in the corridors. Rena straightened out and faced Fournier, her fists clenched and eyes blazing with fury. 'How dare you?' She said, her voice low.

Jason grinned. He pointed at her. 'You and me... We're going on a walk. Now.'

He turned on his heel and strode down the corridor. Caine trotted after him, the gun still being firmly pressed to Tadashi's skull. After a moment of internal conflict, Rena reluctantly began to walk after them.


	33. Chapter 33

Fred was expecting to be brought back down to the basement room in which he started. Instead, he was dragged into a huge room the size of a house. It smelt of damp and blood. There was little to furniture aside from a chair in the corner, next to a bucket of weapons. There were four doors out, each being manned by two beefy men holding guns. The room was dimly lit, but bright enough to still be able to see clearly.

He was dragged into the room cruelly, still yelling with pain. His broken arm was twisted behind his back and the pain was almost unbearable. They forced him onto his knees, tying his hands behind his back as he wept.

'Fred!'

His head snapped up at the sound of his name. Honey Lemon was sat in the corner, her hands and feet tied. Her face was ashen and there was a cut running along her forehead, but she was still smiling. Of course Honey Lemon would still be smiling, despite all this. Next to her was Wasabi, slumped over to one side. He was unconscious, and yet they had still found a need to tie him up. On Honey Lemon's other side was Gogo, the only one out of the trio to appear unharmed. Shaken up, but unharmed.

'Guys!' Fred cried as they knotted his feet together. 'Oh my god!'

One of the men seized him by his hoodie and dragged him over to them, leaving him on his side next to Gogo.

'Jesus, Fred. What have they done to you?' Gogo said, her face full of concern.

'Broke my arm.' He gasped, 'and twisted my ankle trying to escape. Bit unfortunate, really.'

Honey Lemon's smile faltered. 'But why?'

'Oh I'm not as bad as Rena. She was almost dead.'

Gogo gasped and Honey Lemon looked like she was about to cry. 'Where is Rena now?' Gogo asked, sounding worried.

Fred felt a stab of guilt. All this time, and he hadn't even spared a single thought to how his friend might be doing. Had that freak killed her yet? He was definitely a supervillain. 'I don't know. We tried to escape but this guy stopped us.'

'What guy?'

'I don't know! Rena seemed to recognise him... I think? He was scary.' He said shuddering, 'and you know Caine? The blonde one?'

'...Yeah?'

'He was holding a gun to Tadashi's head.'

'What the fuck?!' Gogo exclaimed.

'Yeah. I don't... I don't know where they went. But I was dragged off in one direction and they left in the other.'

'Let's hope Hiro and Baymax can find them.' Honey Lemon said.

'Yeah.' Gogo agreed, 'but what are we gonna do?'

'There's not much we can do.' Honey Lemon said, 'we could try and get the ropes loose but there's that many guards here it wouldn't be a whole lot of use to us.'

'What about your chem purse?' Fred asked.

Honey Lemon shook her head, 'they threw it into the corner, I think. Same with all of our other weapons. We wouldn't even have time to run across the room before they take us down.'

'Shit.' Fred muttered, 'so what do we do then?'

'There's not much we can do.' Gogo said, sighing. 'All we can do is wait for Hiro.'

'What if he gets Hiro?'

'Then we're fucked.'

'Okay... then we might as well do something to pass the time. Who wants to play I spy?'  
\------------------------------------  
Rena had a million questions to ask Fournier. The only problem was, she had no idea where to even begin. 'Where are we going?'

'Just for a wander. No need to worry yourself, darling.'

She shuddered. It was bad enough the creepy men at the café calling her 'darling', but it was even worse coming from him. 'Where have you taken Fred? What did you mean by 'others?''

'All of that will be answered in due course! Now, stop asking so many questions or you can say goodnight to your brother.'

Rena glanced back at Tadashi and Caine. Tadashi was still staring directly ahead as though this wasn't even happening. She waved a hand in front of his face, but no. Nothing. No response at all. Caine's forehead was shining with sweat despite the cold. How dare he be nervous?

'What have you done to him?' Rena whispered.

She was talking to Caine but Fournier answered instead. 'You mean your brother? Odd guy, isn't he?'

Rena didn't reply, she just glared at the back of his head. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets and tried to formulate a plan to get put of this situation. Tadashi was probably drugged. That would explain the vacant expression. But if he wasn't all there, how would she get the both of them out of there? Caine had a gun. Fournier almost definitely had some kind of concealed weapon. If she tackled Fournier, Tadashi would get shot. If she tried to tackle Caine and failed, Tadashi would get shot. Even if she did manage to get away, would she be able to take Tadashi with her? She was injured.

Unfortunately for Rena, it seemed like the only option was to keep walking and hope that another opportunity would present itself. She didn't like the idea, but she liked the idea of Tadashi being shot in the head even less.

'You giving me the silent treatment? Oh dear. And here was I thinking you would want some kind of explanation...'

'What did Hiro do?' She burst out before she could stop herself. If she was going to die, it would be nice to know why.

Fournier looked back at her, his smile gone. 'I said we were waiting for that part.'

'And I've waited. If it's so bad, you can tell me now. What. Did. He. Do?' She asked again, slowly. Deliberately.

'You really want to know?' He said quietly.

'Yes. I do.' She sped up until she was in front of him. She looked him in the face, her eyes full of fury. 'Tell me.'

'He killed the love of my life.'

Rena tripped backwards over her own feet. She landed sprawling on the floor, much to the displeasure of her sprained arm and ribs. 'No...'

'I said you wouldn't like it.' Fournier said cruelly.

Rena sat up, shaking her head in disbelief. 'No he didn't. He's not... He's not a murderer.'

'That's why you're here.' Fournier said, sneering. He bent down until his face was inches away from hers. 'It's his fault you're here. I'm tearing apart your lives just as he tore apart mine. Now get up.' He spat.

Rena's mind was going a hundred miles an hour. There was no way. She refused to believe that Hiro would kill someone. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He would NEVER. This guy must have got it wrong. He must have done. 'My little brother isn't a murderer.'

'Oh yes he is.'

She struggled to her feet and glared at Caine stood in front of her. 'Well? Are you going to say anything? Is this true?'

Caine swallowed nervously, his eyes darting back and fourth between her and Fournier. 'Rena I-'

'Shut up boy!' Fournier snapped, 'or else you know what will happen.'

He shut his mouth. Rena rolled her eyes. Fucking coward.

'He deserves this. Every little bit.' Fournier snapped, 'blame him.'

Rena narrowed her eyes. 'He's a fourteen year old CHILD! He's not killed ANYONE! LIAR!'

'Who are you calling a liar?' Jason stepped forwards and grabbed her shirt collar, lifting her up off the ground. 'How dare you? HOW DARE YOU? I have a gun to your beloved brother's head... Or do you not remember that? I will not HESITATE to tell him to pull the trigger.' He pointed a finger towards Caine, 'one word. That's all it takes. I wouldn't be so careless, if I were you.'

He dropped her, still seething. Then, he turned on his heel and continued walking down the hall. 'If you want to live then you'd better pick up the pace.'

Rena turned to Caine. 'I can't stand to see the sight of you. Please stay behind me.'

She turned and marched down the hall after Fournier, waiting for him to explain more. He was silent for a long time before he said, 'his ID was in his hoodie that he left behind. It was him. The famous Hiro Hamada. Stupid boy. Bold enough to think he could overcome me? He's an idiot.'

Rena sighed, once again feeling a wave of guilt crash over her. If only she'd been more observant... She could have protected him. 'So what happens now? Are you gonna kill me?'

'Well... That's always going to come. Not yet, though. I wouldn't worry though. Dying isn't that bad. I mean, I've never died so I wouldn't know. But there's worse that can happen.'

'And I'm assuming that's what you're planning.'

'You're not as slow as you look.'

'I'm not slow.'

'Oh yeah? Prove it.' Fournier stopped and gestured to Tadashi, 'what's wrong with your brother, then?'

'I thought you weren't going to tell me?'

'Oh, I'm not. But I still want you to guess.'

Rena looked at Tadashi again. She stepped up to him and peered into his eyes. They were glazed over and had a faraway look in them. She snapped her fingers in front of his face. He didn't even blink. Cautiously, she took his hand and squeezed it. It remained limp and cold in her hand. 'Tadashi.' She said softly. 'Look at me.' For a second, she thought his eyes seemed to focus. But then she blinked and they were dead and blank once more.

'Come on, if you're really as smart as you seem, tell me.' Fournier said, smirking.

'You've... Drugged him or something. Somehow, you've altered his way of thinking. The way he sees and processes things. He's there, but not entirely. You don't want him to speak. Or fight back. It's like he's not thinking at all.'

'Oh, he can fight. Don't worry about that. But... He'll only fight if I want him to.'

Rena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. 'Okay so... Am I right?'

'In a way, yes. But also no. Very far from being right.'

'Right. I'm gonna assume that pretty much everything else has been your fault to?'

Fournier stroked his chin in thought. 'Not my fault. Your brother's fault.'

'But... Your men robbed the café? You set up that botfight with Yama?'

'Yep. I told you I was making your brother's life hell. Nobody messes with me.'

'And when I got poisoned... That was you as well?'

Fournier nodded, his gaze drifting over to Caine. 'Well, technically that wasn't me...'

Rena stared at the boy she once considered her friend. 'You?!' She spluttered angrily, 'that was you?!' Of course, it made sense. The orange straw. He only wanted her to have that drink so he could poison her. And then... What? Pretend to be her friend and visit her from the hospital? Help her to escape so she would see the scene and be even more tortured? Her hands were shaking with anger. To think she trusted him! To think she considered him a friend! And he'd been spying on her! Plotting to make her life hell; to kill her!

Caine looked back at her, his eyes filled with something. Sorrow? Worry? Revenge? She had no idea. Everything she had learnt about this boy came crumbling down in front of her. He wasn't the kind person Rena had grown to love. He was a liar. A liar and a criminal. And she hated him.

'Shame.' Fournier said sarcastically, 'I'm devastated for you, I really am.'

Rena cleared her throat, determined not to cry in front of him. 'Well... Now what?'

'Now? Let's go see the others.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Reminder to submit your questions by the 5th Jan - I'll try and answer all of them but no promises! Huge thanks to people that have commented theirs :DD


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI!! Happy new year! I hope everyone is having a good year so far and that 2021 brings you happiness and good health. God knows we all need it.  
> A reminder that your questions are due in on the 5th Jan (2 days from now)   
> I really hope you like this chapter, it took me a long time to write haha.  
> Thanks for all the support so far  
> :D

Hiro had been walking around for a suspiciously long time without encountering anyone.

'Baymax,' he hissed, 'is there anyone down there?'

Baymax quickly scanned the corridor in front of them, 'my sensors detect no sign of life.'

'Can you detect Rena or anyone yet?'

'No.'

He cursed loudly, kicking the wall. 'I don't get why, though! If you can detect signs of life down one corridor, why not through a few floors or walls?'

'It is because my sensors are being interrupted by electromagnetic waves. As these waves are not in the immediate vicinity, my sensors are operational. However, attempting to scan anywhere further away is where there are electromagnetic waves. Therefore, I cannot scan anything in close occupation.'

'So... They're all in close occupation with these... electromagnetic waves?'

'They must be.'

Hiro continued down the corridor, chewing his lip in thought. 'I get that... The waves. It's just... Why? What's he doing that would involve waves of any kind? Nevertheless, waves that would impact your scanner? I mean, there's another thing that might be contributing to that... Baymax, can you detect any signs of radiation?'

'My scan has detected signs of radiation, yes. However, it is radiofrequency radiation. This is the type of radiation that comes from-'

'Tracking devices. Yeah, I know. So what is he doing with... Tracking devices and electromagnetic waves? Something bad... Surely...'

So Fournier was doing something that involved electromagnetic waves and radiofrequency radiation. There was no way this was a coincidence. This had to all be linked to the disappearance of Rena, Tadashi and, now, Fred. He was planning something bad. They needed to get out of there before he could execute it.

They came to the end of the hallway. There were two options. Downstairs, or to the right. 'Which we going?' Hiro asked the bot, gesturing down the stairs, 'anything down there?'

'My scan detects that there is a man. Mid-thirties, high blood pressure and cholesterol. He is unconscious, but still breathing.'

Hiro nodded, 'sounds promising.'

He ran down the stairs as quickly as he dared, coming to a stop outside a door. Hesitantly, he brought his hand up to the handle. The door was unlocked, so he pushed it open and stepped inside. A man was lying in the middle of the room, flat on his stomach. His face was sticky with blood and his feet and hands were both tied together, rendering movement useless. Baymax filed in after Hiro and scanned the man, wiping the blood from his face and assessing the damage. Hiro stepped past them cautiously, heading towards a pile of wood in the corner. He picked up a piece and ran a gloved hand over the edge of it.

'Pretty sharp.' He muttered to himself before dropping it onto the floor next to the others. Something caught his eye and he turned to see a towel and bucket of water in the corner of the room. He picked up the towel and examined it. It was soaking wet still, and had a dark red stain on the front. Feeling sick, he grabbed the bucket of water and made his way back over to Baymax.

'Scan that.' He said, thrusting the towel at the robot. 'Blood, I'm assuming. Who's?'

'My scan indicates that this is Rena's blood.'

Hiro sucked in a breath, nodding. He kicked the man gently with his shoe, 'is he awake?'

'No-'

Hiro poured the bucket of water over his head.

The man let out a gasp. His eyes shot open as he lay there on the ground, coughing and spluttering. 'What the hell?!' He said loudly, struggling against the ropes.

Hiro pressed his foot to the man's cheek, holding his head down against the floor. 'Don't say a word. I have a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it.' He didn't, but he knew the threat of a weapon would keep him quiet. 'Now. I'm going to ask you a few questions. You will tell me the truth and nothing but the truth. Am I clear?' No response. 'AM I CLEAR?!'

'Yes!' The man spluttered, still trying to untie himself, 'yes!'

'Good. Now, first question. Who do you work for?' He suspected Fournier, but of course he could never be sure.

The man swallowed anxiously, 'I'm really not-'

'I won't ask again.'

He sighed. 'Fournier.'

Fucking coward. Is that really all it took? 'Baymax, tell me if he's lying,' Hiro said.

'He is telling the truth.'

'Okay. Next question. Assuming you were guarding this room, who was in it?'

'I don't know names!'

Hiro pressed his foot harder into the side of his face. 'Describe them then!'

'O...Okay! There was a girl. Teenager. Foul-mouthed. Long, dark hair. And a boy. Similar age. Wearing a red hoodie and a hat. He was less mean looking.'

'Fred.' Hiro muttered under his breath, 'was that all? Was there not another boy?'

'No. That was it! I swear it!'

Hiro looked over at his robotic friend, 'Baymax?'

'He is telling the truth.'

Hiro sighed. If Tadashi wasn't with the other two, where the hell was he? 'Have you seen another kid around here? Slightly older than the girl. Looks similar though.'

'Uhh... Yeah. Yeah, I think I did. He was with Jason at one point.'

'Where is Jason now?'

'Probably in the main hall. Go up the stairs, take a right, keep going down the hall, take the third left and go up another flight of stairs. Take a right, a left and then the second door on the right.'

Hiro glanced at Baymax, 'did you get that buddy?'

'Yes.'

Hiro nodded and took his foot of the man's face. 'I'd say thanks but you've got a swastika tattoo on your neck. Rot in hell.'

He turned and slammed the door, Baymax right behind him.

'So then... Up the stairs?'  
\--------------------------------------------------

'What's in here?' Rena pointed to a random door that they were coming up to. There was nothing special about it, it was just a plain, wooden door. She was trying to distract him. It was her last resort at this point. She was completely out of ideas, but by distracting the psychopath maybe she could come up with some.

Fournier shrugged, 'why don't we have a look?' He replied, that malicious tone still in his voice.

Rena blinked. She didn't actually expect him to take the bait. 'O..Okay.' Tentatively, she reached out and opened the handle.

The first thing she noticed about the room was the smell. She coughed, pulling her filthy t-shirt over her nose. 'What the fuck?' She muttered, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

'Oh, silly me. My memory isn't the same as it used to be... This is just a storage room.' Fournier said, so casually it was as though the room only had brooms in it.

But it didn't. Rena squinted at the shadow and suddenly realised what the shape in the room was. She backed up rapidly, her eyes wide and her palms sweating.

It was a body. A decomposing corpse.

And Rena knew exactly who it was. For a second, her memory had failed her and then the realisation smacked her in the face. It was Brian. The kid who they had met outside the botfighting hall. The kid who helped them sneak in. Dead.

'Was he working for you too?!' Rena gasped.

'Yes. I'm finished with him now. Can't have too many people in the inner circle, you see. He had to be disposed of.'

She felt like she was going to throw up. That kid was... Nice. He'd helped them. Unless... 'was it your plan that he helped us?'

'Yes. As I've said, he's finished his duties. There was no reason for him to stay alive anymore. The more people that know my plans, the easier it is for me to be betrayed.'

She sprang forwards and pulled the door shut, her heart rate accelerating rapidly. She knew this guy was crazy, but now she was properly afraid of him. Killing a teenager because he had done as he was told? That was insane. Inhuman and insane. 'That's... That's sick.'

'Mmmm.' Jason murmured in agreement, 'now if you'll follow me.'

They walked swiftly down a corridor and stopped outside a huge door. Fournier nodded in satisfaction and pushed the door open, beckoning for them to follow him. Rena followed Fournier into the huge room, Caine still behind her. She was too numb and too afraid to think of anymore distractions. Her only hope now was that the others would come to save her. However, this hope was quickly diminished when she caught sight of her friends in the corner, shock swiftly followed by relief when she realised Fred was okay.

'Rena!' Honey Lemon gasped, 'are you okay?!'

'Never been better!' Rena called back sarcastically.

'QUIET!' Jason bellowed loudly, 'Caine, stop loitering at the door and come in.'

Gogo yelled a string of curse words when Caine walked in with Tadashi. His arm was still wrapped around the oldest Hamada's neck, his other supporting a gun to his head.

'Let him go now. He's not going to run anywhere.' Caine released him, letting the gun drop to his side. Tadashi remained where he stood, despite the beckoning calls of his friends in the corner of the room.

Fournier tutted. 'He won't listen to you. He will only answer to me, now.'

'Why?!' Gogo yelled, 'I don't understand.'

'I wouldn't expect you to. Now, be quiet before I blow his brains out.'

'Hang on a minute-'

'Do as he says!' Rena yelled back at her, 'please!' Gogo fell silent, a look of fury on her face.

'Now, we play the waiting game.' Fournier said confidently, beginning to pace up and down the room. 'Oh... Hands on your head, please... I would hate any surprises. It might not end well for you.'

Rena sighed in defeat and placed her hands on her head, despite the aching in her wrist. 'And what are we waiting for?'

'Our guest of honour.' Jason replied, smirking, 'word has it that he will be here any minute now. Assuming these words are true, then your life as you know it will end in approximately ten minutes.'

Rena swallowed a mouthful of bile. That had to mean Hiro. 'Guest of honour.' This whole thing was because of him. 'After all this, you're just gonna kill me?' She had no doubt that he would. Suddenly, the rancid air seemed a lot nicer. Her heart seemed to be beating louder. She could almost feel the blood travelling through her veins. Now that her life was going to end, it was easy to realise how hard her body was fighting to keep her alive, despite the injuries.

'Oh no! I'm not gonna kill you!'

Rena glanced at Caine, stood leaning against the wall. The gun was still in his hand. 'Ah. I see.' She said in a deadpan voice. Killed by someone she considered to be a friend. How appropriate.

'Oi!' Gogo yelled, 'what about us?'

'Yeah, are you just gonna forget us?!' Fred shouted.

'That's a bit rude of you!' Honey Lemon added, quieter than the others. Wasabi was still passed out cold.

Rena grinned despite her fear. At least her friends still had faith.

'Don't worry! All will be revealed soon!' Fournier said, smirking at them, 'maybe it's time you should start saying your goodbyes.'

'I don't think so.'

Hiro was stood in the entrance to the hall, fists clenched and face twisted in fury. Baymax was stood behind him, looking particularly terrifying in his armour. 'This is between you and me. Don't you dare touch them.'

Fournier grinned evilly. 'I'm afraid it's too late for that. You see, I got to them a long time ago.'

Nobody moved as he took a small device out of his pocket. He pressed a few buttons and slid it back into his jacket with a cruel grin. The room was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop.

Fournier chuckled, 'now, watch this.' He let out a long, low whistle that made the hairs on the back of Rena's neck stand up.

Tadashi blinked. Then, like a robot, he turned on his heel.

'Tadashi!' Hiro called, 'Tadashi!'

Tadashi pushed past him without acknowledging he was even there. He stood opposite Caine, who shrunk away from him. Tadashi wrenched the gun out of his hand and walked back over to Fournier.

'Tadashi what the hell are you doing?!' Hiro shouted, 'stop being such an idiot!'

Rena stared at her older brother in horror as he turned away from the man and started to walk towards her. 'What... What are you doing?' She asked to the silent room, 'stop.'

'Hiro, take him down!' Fred shrieked.

'Do something!' Gogo added loudly.

Hiro nodded, about to move towards Fournier when the man laughed. 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.'

Tadashi reached Rena and pressed the gun against the side of her head, pushing the cold metal against her skin. With a stifled sob, she sank down onto her knees, hands still on her head.

Honey Lemon screamed. Fred and Gogo were shrieking cries of protests. Wasabi began to stir. Hiro stood still as a statue, watching with tears in his eyes.

'Now.' Fournier said coolly, 'nobody move. Or she dies.'


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder about questions due tomorrow (5th Jan '21 :D)

The metal of the gun was cold. Colder than anything she'd ever felt before.

Time slowed down. Everyone else in the room seemed to disappear. The only ones in existence were her and the boy holding a gun to her head. Rena looked up at her older brother and whimpered.

After everything. Everything they had been through. He was going to shoot her in the head and she was going to die.

There was so many things Rena had never done. She'd never get to graduate college. She'd never get to reach adulthood and get her own place and pay bills and do all those adult things. She would never get a job outside of the cafe. She would never get married. Have children. She didn't even want children, and yet there was an ache in her chest at the realisation that she would never have them. She wouldn't see any of her friends again. She would never get to see Aunt Cass again. She would never get to say sorry to Hiro. To Tadashi. She'd never be able to come out. She would die hiding who she really was.

She wouldn't even get to say goodbye.

An hour ago, death seemed like a perfectly fine option. An option that Rena was willing to accept. But as she looked at Tadashi standing above her, at Honey Lemon and Gogo; Fred and Wasabi, at Hiro and Baymax, she realised then how much she valued her life and the people in it. After all, was it not selfish to not share the heavy burden of living?

Or maybe she was so bitterly angry and miserable because Tadashi would be the one to end her life. Despite everything, he was her best friend. She didn't care that other people might think it weird for brother and sister to be so close. Not a care in the world.

Tadashi knew everything about her. Rena knew everything about him. She couldn't remember a time without him in her life and, quite frankly, she didn't even want to. Throughout everything - their parents' death, Hiro in the hospital, everything with Callaghan, the fire, Rena being poisoned - he was there. He'd never left. Tadashi knew exactly when something was wrong. He knew when she was scared, or sad. And Rena knew everything about Tadashi. She knew he wanted to go to SFIT before he did. She knew exactly when he needed to be alone, or when he needed a shoulder to cry on. That's how things were. They were never apart. They was never any doubt about their relationship.

Until now. Because she'd failed to make sure that he was okay. Because she had ignored the not so subtle hints that something was going on. Because he was going to shoot her in the head. And there was nothing she could do about it.

But Rena knew Tadashi. She knew that whatever was going on, this wasn't him. Deep down, she knew that he was still in there. That he would never, ever, kill her. Ever. Because he was Tadashi and murder really wasn't his style.

So, what could she do? She knew one thing for certain - she had no intention on dying that night.

'Why are you doing this?'

Hiro's voice snapped her out of her daze. Good. If he kept talking, she could work on a plan.

'Because you took everything from me. Now, I'm going to take everything from you.'

'I don't... I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry.' Hiro said desperately, his confident facade beginning to crumble.

Fournier laughed, 'sorry! I don't care if you're sorry! That means NOTHING to me now!'

Rena slowly lowered her hands. Fournier was too busy talking to Hiro to notice. She glanced over at her friends and offered them a small smile, hopefully she looked more confident than she felt.

Honey Lemon offered her a watery grin in return. 'You okay?' She mouthed.

Rena nodded gently, afraid that any sudden movement would set Tadashi off.

'The phone!' Gogo mouthed, 'we need to get the phone!'

Rena was confused for a second before it hit her. Gogo had figured it out a lot faster than she had. Of course! The phone. Fournier controlled Tadashi's every move with his phone. It had to be linked to that - it had to be! Once they had the phone, they could stop him.

'Mind control!' She gasped quietly.

Fred nodded eagerly 'I was right!' He mouthed back gleefully.

Rena rolled her eyes and turned back to Tadashi. Mind control. He was an empty husk; forced to do whatever Jason Fournier wanted him to do. He was still in there. He had to be. If anyone could get him to wake up, she could.

But before that, she needed to get the gun away from him.

'What have you done to Tadashi?' Hiro yelled, his voice trembling.

'It's mind control.' Rena replied, 'he does it using that little phone in his pocket.'

Fournier laughed, 'so you finally figured it out! Well done. Really, I am impressed.'

'Mind control?!' Hiro spluttered, then a realisation dawned on him. 'OH! The electromagnetic waves! The radio frequency radiation!' He turned to Baymax, 'that's what is interrupting your scanner!'

'Yes, yes, very nice.' Jason drawled, 'you finally figured it out! Took you long enough. I thought you guys were meant to be extremely close? At least, that's what the useless boy told me.' He jerked a thumb behind his back towards Caine, 'either he was lying or you're just extremely slow.'

Rena winced. 'Alright, we get it. You're very clever.' She replied sarcastically.

'Thank you! Oh and please, whenever any of you want to try and save yourselves, please feel free to do so. I'll have a lot of fun quashing you.'

Rena gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to scream a string of insults at him. There was one thing she needed to focus on - the gun.

She had one idea. An idea she hated. But, all the same, one idea was better than no ideas.

Her eyes moved to Tadashi's prosthetic. Her hands were free. He was immobilised by the mind control, he would be unable to stop her. If she could just take it off...

Her hand moved rapidly. She knew exactly how to take the prosthetic off, she could do it with her eyes closed. She felt sick using it against him, but knew it was the best shot she had at saving her own ass. Within seconds, it was detached. She held it in one hand and threw it as hard as she could. It landed on the other side of the room, striking one of the guards on the head and knocking him out cold, much to the delight of her friends.

Tadashi swayed and came crashing down onto the floor next to her. The gun slipped out of his hands and landed on the floor next to her. Like lightning, she seized it and launched it towards her friends, praying that nothing bad would happen. Fortunately, Wasabi had awoken properly and, being the only one untied, he reached up and caught the gun, whooping in victory.

Fournier cackled with glee. 'Oh, nice work! Using his fake leg against him... Truly evil, I must admit...' He took the phone out again and Rena knew she had seconds as he began tapping on the screen.

'Tadashi!' She exclaimed, seizing his wrist. She brought his chin up with one finger and looked directly into his hazel eyes. 'Fight it, okay? You can. I know you're still in there. Whatever he's about to do, you're stronger than that. FIGHT IT!' She gasped desperately.

'That's nice.' Jason said sarcastically. Again, he gave that same, long whistle.

Tadashi wrenched his hand out of her grip and pushed her to the floor. Rena struggled against him, but her ribs and arm put her at a significant disadvantage. She was lying face up on the floor, her uninjured arm was pinned to her side and her other lay next to her, useless. Tadashi's face was inches from her own, an uncharacteristically evil glint in his eye. Slowly, he raised both of his hands to her neck and began to squeeze.

Somehow, Fournier had done it. He had come up with something worse than Tadashi shooting her in the head - Tadashi killing her with his own hands.

'NO!' Hiro screamed, running across the room towards his sister, 'NO!' He grabbed onto Tadashi's arm and tried to pull him away, but it was no use. Rena gasped for breath, using the last of her strength to try and push him away.

Wasabi and Baymax were swift after him, but they were stopped by Jason firing a round of bullets into the air. 'If anyone else takes another step I will kill you all!'

Baymax continued to move but was stopped by the screaming from Gogo and Honey Lemon. 'But I am a healthcare companion! I must give assistance!'

'Baymax! If you move all of us WILL be killed!' Wasabi hissed, 'stop!'

'STOP IT!' Hiro screamed, his face red, 'I'll do whatever you want! Anything! Just... Stop him killing her!'

Jason laughed, 'no. I don't think I will.'

Rena's face was slowly turning blue as the life was squeezed out of her. Tears were running down her face as she desperately gasped for air, 'Tadashi!' She wheezed.

Hiro was pushing Tadashi, but his older brother would not budge. 'Rena! I'm so sorry. I'm sorry.' He cried, desperately trying to get Tadashi off her.

'Snap... Him... Out... Of...' Rena wheezed, struggling to pull her arms free.

Hiro changed tactics, instantly understanding what she meant. He grabbed Tadashi's face and pressed his forehead against his. 'Stop it. Tadashi, I know you're in there. Rena knows you're in there. Just... Stop.' He whispered between sobs, 'please. You'll kill her! Tadashi!' It was no use, his brother seemed unable to hear him. He was unreachable.

Tadashi's eyes softened. His grip loosened for a second. That was all Rena needed. She pulled her arm out from his grip and pushed him aside, crawling away from him and desperately gulping in air.

'NO!' Fournier shrieked, clearly not expecting this outcome at all.

Unfortunately for Rena, this change of heart didn't last for long. Tadashi pushed Hiro off him and went straight for her, manoeuvring across the floor as best as he could without his prosthetic. Rena rolled out of the way and was on her feet, running as quickly as she could towards Gogo, Honey Lemon and Fred, leaving Tadashi behind.

'OI!' Fournier shrieked, 'stop it! Stop it or everyone dies!'

'Be quiet, old man!' Wasabi cried, activating his blades and charging after him. Quickly, they were engaged in a fight. Wasabi kicked the gun out of his hands were it went flying across the floor, landing at Baymax's feet. The robot picked it up and squashed it between his fingers, throwing the tiny box of metal onto the floor.

'GUARDS!' Fournier cried. That was all they needed. Instantly, the seven men left dived into the middle of the floor. Baymax was taking four at once. The other three were helping Jason with his fight against Wasabi.

Hiro scrambled to his feet and followed his sister, diving onto the ground next to her. Rena was still gasping for breath, her shaking fingers trying to untie the knot that bounded Gogo's wrists together. 'Are you okay?' He asked, quickly untying Honey Lemon as he did so.

'Fine.' Rena replied, 'but we need a plan.'

'Get the phone.' Gogo said, 'I mean, we've done something very similar beforehand. How hard can it be?'

'Rena and Fred need Baymax.' Honey Lemon said, 'we need a distraction.'

'I think Baymax is a little preoccupied!' Rena gasped.

'He won't take long!' Fred protested, eyes firmly locked on the battle, 'look at him go!'

Hiro finished with Honey Lemon and took over from Rena and her one working hand, swiftly untying the knot in seconds. 'Honey Lemon, get your chem purse. Then you can help Wasabi.'

'On it.'

'Thanks, Hiro.' Gogo replied, shrugging the ropes off and rubbing her red wrists, 'what will the rest of us do?'

'Gogo, you can help Baymax. The two of you should have those guys down in no time.'

She nodded, sliding her visor down over her face, 'okay.' She sped off, aiming straight for the man nearest to her. Isnantly, she started to run around in rapid circles around him.

Rena glanced over at Tadashi as Hiro started to untie Fred's hands, 'what are we gonna do about him?' The boy in question had propped himself up against the wall, and was limping over to them with a look of vengeance on his face.

Hiro grimaced, 'I have no fucking clue.'

The rope bounding Fred came loose in Hiro's hands and Fred whimpered as he moved his arm back to its normal position, 'man, this hurts.'

Rena wrapped his other arm around her shoulders and hoisted him up as she had before, 'Hiro, whatever we're doing, Fred needs Baymax.'

'So do you!'

'Yeah, yeah. My main focus is staying away from him.' She replied, jerking her head towards Tadashi, still dragging himself towards them.

'That's a good idea,' Fred said warily, 'he looks pretty terrifying right now.'

Hiro looked at Baymax and Gogo. They were down to their last guard, but the others on the floor were stirring. Wasabi and Honey Lemon were fighting a guard and Fournier, who was surprisingly good at fighting. Caine was still crouching in the shadows, as though desperate not to be seen. 'We can pull Baymax away now, I think. Then he can bandage up Fred and do a proper scan of the both of you.'

'When are you-'

'NOW!' He yelled before running across the hall as fast as he could.

Rena watched as he dodged one of the guards and narrowly avoided being punched by another, 'he'd better watch out.'

'Rena, I think we've got bigger problems.' Fred said nervously.

She turned to see Tadashi just feet away from them. With a shriek, she pulled them both backwards just as he lunged for her. He fell onto the floor in a heap.

'Sorry Fred.' She said, trying to pull him away from Tadashi.

'It's not me he wants!' Fred replied, 'you can leave me here and run for it!'

'I'm not doing that!'

Tadashi pulled himself up and grabbed her leg, fingernails digging in hard.

'Rena! He doesn't care about me!' Fred exclaimed.

Rena ignored him, gripping her friend as she tried to run backwards away from her brother. It was proving to be a difficult task. 'Get off!' She shouted, attempting to kick him away.

Fred sighed and pulled her arm off him. He slid down the wall and sat with his injured ankle in front of him. Tadashi staggered right past him, as though he wasn't there. 'See!' He yelled to her, 'just run!'

Reluctantly, Rena turned on her heel and tore away from Fred and Tadashi. He was right, Tadashi only seemed interested in pursuing her. Instead of heading towards the fight, she veered to the side and made a beeline for Baymax.

'Baymax!' She screeched, dodging one of Honey Lemon's chem balls.

'Sorry Rena!' She shouted back to her.

'Rena!' Hiro yelled. He had managed to clamber up onto Baymax's back despite the fight, and was now reaching a hand out towards her. 'Come on!'

She seized his hand and pulled herself up onto the robot's back. 'Hey Baymax.' She said, patting the robot's arm affectionately, 'it's good to see you.'

'Why did you leave Fred?'

'Because Tadashi's not interested in Fred, he seems to only be interested in killing me.'

'Because Fournier told him to be. Makes sense.' Hiro replied, 'Baymax, let's go grab Fred!'

Baymax activated his rockets and headed straight for Fred, only just skimming the top of Fournier's head. He swooped down and plucked the boy from the floor, placing him onto his back beside Rena.

'Thanks Baymax!' Fred exclaimed in relief.

'It was no problem. Hiro, where would you like me to go now?'

'That corner over there will do, buddy.' Hiro replied.

The fight was pretty much over. Despite being outnumbered, the gang cleared the floor pretty fast. Two men were lying spread eagled across the floor, out cold. The rest were trapped in pink shells, courtesy of Honey Lemon. Fournier seemed to be the only one that had escaped capture. Instead, he was standing in the middle of the room with a look of murder on his face.

'Give up, Jason. It's over.' Hiro shouted as Baymax landed. He hopped off the robot's back, landing cleanly on his feet and strolling casually towards the man. 'You really thought you could beat us?'

'Oh, I believe I still can.'

'Oh yeah? How do you plan on doing that?'

'Easy.'

He clicked his fingers and another man appeared. He looked similar to Jason. They had the same nose, the same arched eyebrows and hair colour. The only difference was, instead of being tall and thin, this man was fat and a quite a bit shorter than Jason. He was also holding a gun. 'Allow me to introduce you to my brother, Matthew.'

Hiro tensed. 'I know who he is.'

'Wait, that's the guy who robbed the cafe!' Wasabi exclaimed.

'Indeed.' Jason replied smoothly, 'now, here's what is going to happen. You're all going to, first of all, take a deep breath and just calm down a little. Then, we're going to do things my way.'

'What do you mean, your way?' Hiro said, raising an eyebrow.

'I mean, I'm going to kill you all.'


	36. Chapter 36

Rena stood behind Baymax whilst he bandaged Fred's arm and set it back in place. 'Did you hear that?' She asked Fred nervously.

'How could I not? Ow!'

'Sorry, I am only trying to fix your arm.'

'That's okay, Baymax. It just fucking hurts.'

'And why do you think that's going to happen? Face it! You're outnumbered.' Hiro said coldly.

'Everyone is going to remove their armour.' Jason replied smoothly, 'starting with you.'

'And what makes you think I'll do that?' Hiro said, scoffing.

'This.'

He clicked his fingers. Immediately, Tadashi howled and collapsed onto the floor. There he lay, shaking and screaming as though someone was torturing him.

'TADASHI!' Rena screamed, her hands clapping to her mouth in shock. It had all happened so sudden.

'He's convinced he's being tortured.' Gogo whispered, her eyes wide.

Honey Lemon had her hands over her ears, 'make it stop!' She whimpered.

'Oh, I will.' Jason said, 'if you take your armour off and remove your weapons.'

Hiro stared him down, but after only a few seconds sighed and gave in. Reluctantly, he took his helmet off and threw it onto the floor. The rest of the gang followed him.

'And the robot.'

Hiro sighed and walked over to Baymax. With the help of Rena and Fred, Baymax's armour was on the floor in no time. 'Okay, it's off.'

Baymax continued to assist Fred as though nothing had even happened.

'Excellent.' Jason purred. 'Now, before anyone does anything rash, remember that my brother is holding a gun.'

'Now stop it!' Hiro said defiantly. His confident demeanour was quickly slipping with the sounds of Tadashi's screams still tearing through the air, 'stop it!'

The man rolled his eyes, 'okay, okay. I am many things, but I'm not a liar.' He clicked a button on the phone and Tadashi lay still.

'We need the phone.' Fred whispered from next to Rena, eyeing Tadashi lying on the floor. 'Like, now.'

'I know!' She hissed, 'I'm thinking! I just... I need more time.'

'I can give you that.' Fred replied quietly. 'OI!'

Fournier turned to him, his eyes narrowed. 'What?'

Fred stepped out behind Baymax, his arm freshly bandaged. 'Uhhh... Hi!'

'Fred!' Hiro hissed, annoyed. 'What the hell are you doing?!'

'I just thought... You know... If you're gonna kill us... We might as well get to know each other! So, I'm gonna go first. My name's Fred and I like comic books and pizza. Your turn, Rena.' He gestured behind him and Rena stepped forward hesitantly.

'Uh, I'm Rena. I like... Uhhh...' She was stalling, her eyes darting frantically around the room. Of course, they could just all run. But then, there was the problem of the gun. No, they had to be smart about it. They could do that... Right? 'I like...' Her voice trailed off when she noticed the chem purse, lying on the floor between Wasabi and Honey Lemon. Then, a slightly insane idea started to form in her head. If she could just get near that chem purse...

Rena's face split into a grin as she looked at Wasabi. She knew exactly what she had to do. 'I like WASABI!'

'As in... The food?' Fournier said, confused.

'No!' Rena exclaimed, putting on her most high pitched and girlish voice, 'HIM!'

She pointed right at him. Wasabi stared at her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 'Eh?'

'Wasabi, we shouldn't have to hide anymore!' Rena said, taking her chance and taking a step towards him. She wasn't shot in the head, so she took this as a good sign, and an indication to go further. 'Well, seeing as we're gonna die anyway.'

'Rena, what-' Honey Lemon began.

'We're in LOVE with each other!' Rena announced loudly, jumping forwards and diving into Wasabi, wrapping her arms around him as they fell to the floor in a heap. 'Please just go with this, I have a plan. I promise.' She whispered into his ear.

'This better had be a good plan.' He muttered in response. He got to his feet and extended a hand out to her. 'Yes, yes what she is saying is true. We are madly.. Madly in love with each other.' He embraced her awkwardly.

'What the FUCK?!' Gogo exclaimed.

'Ugh, this makes me sick.' Fournier said, rolling his eyes in disgust.

'How long... How long has this been going on?' Hiro asked, his eyes wide.

'July 24th.' Rena replied, trying to subtly jerk her head towards the chem purse a couple of feet away from her. As everyone turned away from her, she grabbed the purse and held it behind her back, wrapping the strap around her sprained wrist the best she could.

'Wh...' He replied, then he suddenly understood. 'I... What? Oh.'

Slowly, the rest of the gang seemed to understand what she was saying. July 24th. The day of the fire.

'July 24th?' Gogo questioned, raising her eyebrows. 'How... Dangerous of a... Relationship is it?'

'Probably pretty dangerous.' Rena said seriously, trying to give her best look of warning without seeming obvious.

'Then... Why are you in it?'

'I think it's the only way.'

'Yes.' Gogo replied, nodding. 'You're right.'

'Oh, whatever!' Fournier said impatiently, shaking his head. 'I'm going to kill you now.'

Rena side-stepped behind Wasabi and began to cry very loudly. It wasn't hard to force the tears to come, given the situation. 'Oh! It's just not fair! We're so young! And we haven't even done anything!' Slowly, she took the purse out and, hidden by her friend, she began typing. Sodium Chlorate in one hand. Sulfuric acid in the other. Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in the other. Glucose. 'I just can't believe this is happening to us!'

'Save your tears, pathetic girl. They won't save you now.'

'No.' Rena said, emerging from behind Wasabi. 'But this will! RED PARTY!'

Red party was a code word they'd been taught in their first few weeks at SFIT. A series of code words were taught to them in case of an emergency. Charlie was the word that meant danger. Operation bright star meant a medical emergency. They were code words often used on ships, but the staff at SFIT deemed it appropriate to drill them into the students to try and reduce danger when working with dangerous chemicals.

Red party? It meant fire.

She threw all the balls as hard as she could at the ground. Sugar, sulfuric acid and sodium chlorate reacted to make fire. And react it did. A huge inferno instantly erupted, sending plumes of black smoke towards the ceiling.

'HOLY SHIT!' Fred screamed, pulling Baymax back with him.

'I am not fast.'

'RENA!' Gogo screeched, grabbing her sleeve, 'come on!'

'NO! I'll be right behind you! GO!' Rena shook her off, instead rushing towards the fire and pelting it with more chemicals. Slowly, the fire began to rise.

'YOU INSOLENT CHILD!' Jason screamed from the centre of the wall, 'MOVE!' He pushed his brother out of the way an dived through the flames, heading straight for the door. Nobody seemed to notice him in the chaos, Matthew directly on his heels. 'I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!'

Honey Lemon and Wasabi were running towards Baymax. Together, they grabbed his arms and helped Fred to pull him to safety.

'Rena!' Hiro screeched, already coughing from the smoke, 'RENA!'

She dived out of the way of a flame and ran towards him, her arms outstretched. 'Quick!' She yelled into his ear.

'TADASHI!' Hiro sobbed, pointing towards the fire.

Rena's heart almost stopped. How could she forget? 'Shit!' She cried, running towards her older brother and diving onto the floor.

'I can help-'

'HIRO! GO!' Rena shouted, her voice scratchy and her throat raw. 'GOGO! GRAB HIM!'

Almost instantly, Gogo was at Hiro's side. She seized his wrist and pulled him away, despite his angry protests. 'RENA IF YOU DON'T MAKE IT OUT OF HERE I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!'

The smoke was quickly surrounding her. Tadashi still lay limp on the floor.

'Tadashi!' She pleaded, 'wake up! NOW!' She shook his shoulder, but to no avail. 'For fucks sake.' She muttered angrily, grabbing his arm and draping it loosely around her shoulder. Her hands were slick with sweat, making an already difficult task almost impossible. She hoisted him up and grabbed his waist pulling him along beside her. They'd almost made it to the door when a hand clamped on her shoulder, making her scream.

'CAINE?!' She yelped, coughing wildly as she inhaled a huge mouthful of smoke, 'what the FUCK?'

'Listen very carefully.' He wheezed, holding his sides. There was a smear of soot on his cheek and tears in his eyes. 'You need to get the chip out of him. It's a secret project he's been working on. The chip is in the back of his neck. Brian placed a tiny robot on him which implemented it, he would have barely felt it. Tadashi programmed the software himself whilst under its influence. It's incredibly easy to install and use. Even if you did get the phone, he would easily be able to re-install it and use it against him. It's killing him. The chip. He'll be dead within hours. Remove it. Get it out. YOU need to do it. Can't... Save... Him...'

Rena stared at him as he coughed. 'Why are you helping me?' She wheezed, almost forgetting the fire.

'Never mind that! Just do it! Save him!' Caine pleaded, before going limp. 'Save... Him...' He crashed against the wall, his eyes half-closed. 'Go. Rena. GO!'

She didn't want to, but her vision was beginning to go cloudy. If she didn't leave, they would all die. She turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could, half dragging Tadashi along behind her. He would not be the victim of another fire, especially one she caused. And they needed to get the chip out. Fast. Adrenaline was the only thing pushing her onwards. Fire. She hated it. This was the worst idea she'd ever had. Her shaking hands were doing her no favours.

She emerged into the cold air without any memory of getting there. She collapsed onto the ground, Tadashi lying next to her. Her ribs were in agony and the pain was almost enough to make her black out.

'YOU'RE AN IDIOT!' Hiro grabbed her shoulders and shook her, 'YOU'RE AN IDIOT!' He gasped again, tears streaming down his face.

'Yeah...' Rena gasped, 'I know..'

'You're fucking lucky we have Baymax.' Hiro said, shaking his head. 'I swear-'

'Tadashi first.' Rena gasped, 'Tadashi first.'

Hiro nodded, taking his brother's arm. 'And then you.'

Gogo appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Tadashi's other arm, helping Hiro to hoist him up. 'Hamada, you're such a fucking idiot.'

Rena waved her off. 'I know! He's already said. Now take him to Baymax. Now.'

She nodded, and they dragged Tadashi away.

Rena looked behind her, at the inferno. Smoke was billowing into the air; she had forgotten how deadly fire was. Her stomach twisted at the idea of Caine still inside. She couldn't let him die. She couldn't. After everything he had done, she still loved him; still cared for him. She did. She couldn't let him die like that.

Fire wouldn't take anything else away from her. Ever. Again. ESPECIALLY when she started it in the first place.

Rena stared at the door determinedly. Caine had saved her brother. Now she was going to save him.

Without another thought, she did what another brave Hamada had done so many months before.

She took a deep breath, and ran back into the burning building.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm writing this on Wednesday during everything that's going on i.e. the Trump terrorists. I know a lot of people are feeling anxious and afraid right now and I just want to say that I hope everyone is okay and staying safe. I would like to emphasise that I do NOT in any way agree with what is happening or with Trump in general. I'm sickened by this whole situation.
> 
> That being said, if anyone needs to talk, my DMs are always open. Always. Things are hard right now and I understand that a lot of people are alone. If you need someone to talk to and like the anonymity, feel free to drop me a message at any time. I'm always open to talk to anyone about anything if you need it. Or even if you don't- come say hi anyway! Give me ideas about the fanfic or tell me about your day. Whatever!
> 
> Please stay safe and know you are loved and cherished

Almost instantly, the smoke clouded her vision, making it even more difficult to breathe. She pulled her t-shirt over her nose, running as fast as her shaking legs would allow her. She dived over a burning beam and flattened herself against the wall to avoid yet more flames. Somehow, she knew exactly where to go.

The image of Caine burning and dying alone in the hall was almost too much for her to handle. Despite everything, he was still her friend. And he cared about her. He must have done. Otherwise, why would he warn her about Tadashi? Without his warning, her brother would be dead by morning. She couldn't bear the thought of Caine burning alive after everything he'd done for her. Yes, he had betrayed her and her family, that much was true. But... He'd listened. He'd laughed with her. Cried with her. He cared. Rena truly believe that Caine did care for her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have run back inside that building. Is this what Tadashi felt when he ran back inside for Callaghan?

She reached the hall within no time, her eyes streaming and chest aching from coughing. 'CAINE!' She screeched from the doorway, praying that he was still alive, 'CAINE!'

'R...Rena?'

A pathetic wheeze to her left. He'd flattened himself against the wall, the flames just tickling him. His forehead was shining with sweat and his exposed forearms were shiny and red from the heat. Rena winced. That would leave some serious blisters. 'Come here, dickhead.'

Caine tried to stand, but almost instantly fell back against the wall. 'I...Can't. Just, go. Save yourself!'

'I'm not giving up on you just yet.' She replied, smiling despite herself. She reached over as far as she dared, afraid of the flames and their power to take her life away. She reached her hand out and seized his wrist, fingers wrapping gently around the tender skin.

'I-'

'Save it.' She wheezed, pulling him towards her.

Using the wall, Caine managed to stagger over to her. He collapsed against her side, chest heaving. 'How... We... Getting... Out?' He asked between breaths.

Rena was clutching his t shirt so hard her fingers were white. Smoke was coming at them from every direction; fire blocking their path in more ways than one. The heat was making her sweat and her t shirt was sticking to her skin uncomfortably. 'This way.' She said, more confidently than she felt.

Caine seized her hand and she pulled him along, careful not to hurt him. Her sprained wrist was throbbing nastily, hanging limply against her side. Her ribs were still screaming with pain and her head was aching horribly from the smoke. Yet, she still ploughed on, determinedly dragging the boy who had betrayed her.

'Why'd you come back?' Caine said hoarsely.

'Because I don't want you to die. DUCK!' She added loudly as a burning beam swung downwards, narrowly missing their heads.

'This way!' Caine cried, pointing to the left, 'there's a fire exit!'

They ran, Rena still clinging to his hand like a lifeline. 'We're almost-'

Caine slipped. He went flying backwards through the air, landing sprawling on the ground a few feet away from her. 'Ow, fuck.' He muttered, rubbing his arm.

Rena went to step towards him when she heard a horrible cracking sound from above her. She glanced up, to see another beam on fire. It was splintering and groaning; any second now it would fall and crush him.

'CAINE!' She screamed, pointing upwards towards the ceiling, suddenly terrified for him.

He looked up slowly, his eyes slowly widening in horror.

An image was seared into Rena's mind. An image of Tadashi, trapped beneath a fallen beam whilst the fire roared raged on around him. Tadashi, lying alone in a hospital bed, a sickening gap where his right leg should have been. Tadashi sobbing in the hospital bed. Tadashi using the wheelchair, struggling to navigate around those sickeningly white corridors.

Without thinking, she dived forwards and grabbed his arm. She pulled him as hard as she could, feeling a sickening popping sound as she did so.

Caine shrieked with pain as the beam went falling down, landing where he had been seconds before. The beam caught Rena's hair as it fell and set it alight. She screamed and let go of his arm, frantically patting the ends of her hair in order to save it. Dark strands fell to the floor, curled and blackened.

'Get up.' Rena whispered, her hands shaking.

Caine was on the floor, clutching his shoulder in agony. At her words, he struggled to his feet and stared at her. 'Thank you.'

'Thank me when we get out of here.' Rena replied, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the beam.

The flames were closing in on all directions, but the fire exit was getting closer. Twenty feet away. Fifteen feet away. Everything was spinning. Twelve feet away. Was that her screaming? Or was it Caine? It didn't matter. Ten feet. All that mattered was the fire and the smoke and the fire and the smoke. It was all consuming. 5 feet.

Rena sank to her knees, her legs trembling. The despicable heat was pressing at her from all directions, making her gasp for air. Caine was in her ear, but she could scarcely hear him over the ringing in her own ears. She couldn't move. Whatever it was - the fear, the heat, the smoke - it had defeated her. She. Could. Not. Move. She'd let Caine down. She'd let Tadashi down. She'd let Hiro and Aunt Cass and all of her friends down.

Or she would have done, had it not been for a pair of hands on her shoulders. Someone looked into her face and grabbed her arm, wrapping it around their shoulder. Someone else grabbed her other side, hoisting her up onto her feet. She shouted something. A name, probably. Or... Maybe not.

She was lifted the few steps out of the building and outside. Her saviours dropped her carefully in the grass where she knelt, hacking and coughing her lungs out. After a few minutes, her head stopped spinning enough for her to be able to look up. Her vision cleared slightly, allowing her to properly survey the scene.

Baymax was stood with bent over an unconscious figure. Immediately, Rena knew it was Tadashi.

Caine was lying on the ground next to her, staring up at the sky and nursing his shoulder. He was covered in burns and soot, but at least he was alive. Rena couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. They were alive.

'RENA!' Her relief was short-lived. Hiro was stood over her, his arms folded and his lip trembling slightly.

She got clumsily to her feet, almost falling flat on her face. Instantly, she was flooded with shame. 'Hiro, listen-'

'NO!' He yelled, pointing his finger at her. 'YOU listen to ME. Seven months ago Tadashi ran into that fire at SFIT. Seven months ago we sat by his bedside, not knowing whether or not he would survive. Here we are, seven months later. AND YOU DO THE EXACT SAME THING? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, EXACTLY?'

Everyone was staring at them. Honey Lemon and Gogo were stood together, their arms wrapped around one another's shoulders. Fred stood beside Wasabi, who's arms were folded across his chest. Caine was sat bolt upright, watching their argument anxiously.

'I'm sorry. I am.'

Hiro shook his head, 'he almost killed you. And you went in there to save his life! How could you do that to me?' His voice cracked, 'how could you?'

'Because I-'

'Rena. Look at me.'

'I am.'

'No. Look. At. Me.'

He seized her wrist and looked into her eyes with a ferocious stare, 'you almost died to save a guy who almost killed you. You nearly DIED. For HIM.'

'I'm sorry.'

'No you're not.' Hiro spat, letting go of her wrist and stepping away from her, shaking his head in disbelief. 'Do you have any-'

He was interrupted by an awful choking sound. They all turned to see the source of the noise.

Baymax was stood over Tadashi, who looked like he was having some kind of seizure. He was choking on something - blood? Vomit?

Caine scrambled to his feet and seized Rena's shoulders, 'did you get the chip out? DID YOU?'

'Wha- No... I-' Rena gasped, horrified.

Caine groaned. 'Then quickly! A human has to do it. If the robot comes into contact with that chip it'll generate enough electricity to kill him!'

Hiro stared at them. 'Wait, what the fuck-'

Rena was running across the grass, clutching her side and wheezing before he could finish his sentence. She dived down onto the floor next to Tadashi, who was still convulsing on the ground. 'Baymax, you're gonna have to work together with me on this one.' She said, her voice strangely calm despite the situation.

'Rena, I am confused-'

Tadashi had stopped convulsing, and was lying still on the ground. His face was a horrible grey colour and his skin was ice cold to the touch. 'I know how we can fix this.' Rena said shakily, gently taking his shoulders and turning him onto his back, 'but I will need your help.'

Hiro came out of nowhere and crouched beside her, staring at their brother with horrid fascination. 'Rena, what the fuck is going on?'

'Baymax and I are going to perform surgery. Baymax, I'm gonna need some gloves. And Tadashi is going to want to be medicated. Morphine or whatever you've got.'

Hiro stared at her, 'wait, what? What do you mean by surgery?'

'I mean, there's a small chip inside him that we're going to need to get out. Thank you.' She added as Baymax handed her a blue pair of plastic gloves that surgeons often used. She took a deep breath and watched as Baymax slowly injected Tadashi with a needle, presumably giving him some kind of pain killer.

'Are you sure about this?' Hiro said incredulously, 'I mean, you're hardly a qualified surgeon. And there's a huge FIRE behind us!'

'Well, someone has to do it. I'm gonna need some antiseptic, Baymax.'

'How are you so calm? What the fuck is even going on right now?'

'Oh trust me, I'm freaking out. A lot.' Rena said flatly.

'How did you even know about the chip?!'

'Caine told me.'

' HIM?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!' Hiro yelled, 'he's just betrayed ALL OF US!'

'Stop shouting at me for five minutes! JESUS CHRIST!' Baymax handed her a bottle of antiseptic spray and she quickly sprayed the back of Tadashi's neck.

Hiro shook his head, 'I don't even know you anymore.'

'Hiro, I don't know myself. I'm a prick, okay? That's the end of the story.'

'I don't understand.'

'Shut up. Baymax, scalpel.'

'Rena-'

'I'M TRYING TO SAVE HIS LIFE!' Rena yelled, her voice finally cracking, 'let me just not fuck up this one thing. Then we'll talk and you can disown me or whatever you wanna do.'

'How do you know-'

'I don't, alright? Just... Trust me.'

'You don't get it, do you?'

'Get what?' She snapped angrily.

'I swear-'

'Just fuck off, Hiro.'

Hiro sat back on his knees, stunned. Rena didn't care, she was too busy trying to stop her hands from shaking. Then, without another word, he stood and left.

'Rena.' Gogo was behind her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. 'You've just come out the fire. That was a lot of smoke inhalation. I just don't think you're thinking straight. Is this really the best idea right now?'

'Back off.' Rena snapped angrily, 'the lot of you. Just give me two minutes.'

'Rena I-'

'Stop. I don't care. Baymax, I need a scalpal.'

'Here.' Baymax handed her a cold cup of water and a small scalpel.

'Thanks,' she gasped, gulping the water down gratefully and holding the blade in her hand. 'Christ, I don't want to do this.'

'Rena, I have been programmed to assist with all healthcare needs-'

'I have to remove it. Do you have any tweezers or anything?'

He silently handed her a gleaming pair of tweezers and Rena took them and placed them on a tissue on her knee. 'Right. So I'll just... Slice him open then.'

'Rena, Tadashi is our friend too...'

Rena turned and glared at Gogo with a look that could melt steel. 'So let me save his life then. Back off.'

Gogo's jaw was clenched. 'Fine.' She said, turning on her heel and walking back over to the others.

Rena positioned the knife above his neck, suddenly realising the absurdity of what she was about to do. What if it went wrong? How could she even trust Caine? What if there was nothing even there? What if it got infected? What if she cut in the wrong place?

Baymax gently took her hand and guided her up half an inch. 'This would be the optimum position.'

'Okay.'

Slowly, she pressed down into his skin. The knife slid through like butter, instantly soaking his neck in blood.

Rena gagged. 'Shit! I've done it too far!'

'Tadashi is still okay. My sensors detect a small disturbance two inches downwards.' He pointed to a spot on his neck, carefully wiping away the blood as he did so.

Rena squinted at it. Now he mentioned it, it seemed to be glowing a bright green. It was faint, but once you noticed it, it was hard to not notice. 'Huh. You're right.' Carefully, she dragged the scalpel downwards to where he was pointing, cringing as she did so. The end hit something hard and she grabbed the tweezers, carefully pulling it out along with a fair amount of blood. She held up to her eye and squinted, turning it around to examine it. It was a small metal box and glowing a luminescent green. 'Baymax, bag that up. I wanna run some tests on it.' All calmness disappeared as her attention focused back to Tadashi. Blood was poring out of him, despite the incision only being small. 'Shit! Baymax, can you like... Oh fuck.. I don't know? Do.. Something!'

Baymax gently pushed her out of the way and turned to Tadashi, producing a clean cloth out of nowhere and attending to him.

Rena turned her back on him. She staggered over to her friends, suddenly feeling a hell of a lot weaker. Her trembling hands were covered in her brother's blood, and worry was plaguing her mind. What if she had actually killed him?

Caine was stood away from the others, watching her anxiously. 'Rena, are you okay?'

She shook her head and stumbled over to the grass, falling onto her knees and vomiting into the greenery. her hands were still spattered with his blood, and she desperately tried wiping them on her filthy jeans. The world was spinning and all she could do was cough and retch onto the floor.

'Rena!' Hiro's voice sounded very far away. 'Rena!'

The fire was still raging on behind them. Smoke was in the air, coming up thick and fast. She was crouched on the floor, someone was next to her and was saying something that she couldn't hear.

'I hate fire.' She croaked weakly, before finally letting the darkness take her. She slumped to the side, her eyes closed and blood still on her hands.


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Just saying hello and hoping everyone is okay, also giving a little update.  
> So, I'm planning two chapters after this one and then the QnA chapter to end things off (bringing us to 40 chapters for the story and then 41 including the QnA) which is WILD I can't believe I've written almost 40 chapters.   
> And now we have the question - what happens next?  
> Well, I don't want to stop writing about these characters. I love them, and we're also in lockdown here in the UK so it's something to do and keep myself occupied with.   
> Right now, I'm debating between writing the third installment and writing a story about Rena, Tadashi, and Hiro in high school. The third installment would follow the series more, using the villains they encounter there, etc. Obviously, the high school one is pretty self-explanatory and I am leaning more towards it because I would love to write about Rena and Clara, etc.   
> Let me know what you want! I'm happy with either, but as I said I'm leaning more towards the high school one.   
> Also! Let me know if you want a character added in there! I'd love to add some people's OCs or you as yourself, whatever.  
> Thank you for all the support and kudos so far (especially human_probably I know I don't often reply to your comments but I see them and I really appreciate them! Thank you so much)  
> Also, I did mention that I've written an AU in which Tadashi dies and it's more along the lines of the film (kind of) and I keep forgetting to upload it but I promise that will be up at some point today or tomorrow! Thank you again :)))

Rena was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest in the corridor. She was staring blankly ahead of her, her shoulders slumped forward in exhaustion. The white walls were suffocating and the sterile cleaning scent was almost enough to make her choke. A nurse walked past and smiled down at her, but the teenager didn't have the energy to smile back. It was so crazy that, for other people, life was going on as it should be. These people were walking around, just living their normal lives. Going to work and school. Coming home, cooking dinner. Having a glass of wine. Reading a book. Watching TV. Doing homework. And yet here she was, sitting in a hospital corridor for the third time in just a few months. Her whole life had been turned on its head, leaving her reeling and struggling to pick up the pieces. She should be dead. She should be at home, doing her homework. Maybe making a coffee. Arguing with her brothers about something stupid. But no. She was here, in one of her least favourite places in the entire world. It hardly seemed fair.

A witness had called the emergency services and everyone had been hauled into ambulances and taken away immediately. Rena was still unconscious, so she had no recollection of the ambulance or what had happened after she'd passed out on the grass in front of the warehouse. After arriving at the hospital, she woke up in a bed with an oxygen mask on and bandages and stitches littering her body. They'd only kept her in to monitor the smoke in her lungs, and after much pleading they'd discharged her. She was badly burnt and bruised, but she found that she didn't particularly care. She'd rather her ribs be broken and her limbs bandaged forever than anyone dying.

Fred was okay, too. The last she had seen he was whizzing about the place in a wheelchair, his broken arm finally appropriately dealt with and his ankle bandaged as well. As always, he had remained extremely optimistic about the sitation. She had seen Wasabi very briefly, but he'd had to leave after about two minutes of conversation. In the chaos, she hadn't seen Honey Lemon nor Gogo, but she had got calls from both of them insisting that they were okay.

Hiro wasn't hurt either. He was sitting next to her in the corridor, his head turned away from her. It had been almost two days, and he hadn't said a word to her at all. Rena hadn't tried to make any conversation with him either. She'd figured that he would come around eventually. Besides, she had no idea how to start the conversation. No words would come even if she wanted them to. They were waiting to go in to see Tadashi. In all the chaos, neither of them had had the chance to see him. As it turns out, Baymax had saved his life after Rena's surgery. He was being monitored because an infection had began to settle in. Guilt clawed at Rena's chest whenever she thought about it - she had to force herself to remember that if it weren't for her removing the chip he would definitely be dead. The doctors had told their Aunt Cass they had very little doubt that he would not pull through. She was the only one that had seen Tadashi, and had left very shortly after. She'd gone straight back to cafe and buried herself in work - as she always did when faced with tragedy. Rena knew none of them minded though. Cass did not know the full story, and none of them were particularly looking forward to explaining it to her. All she knew was that they had gotten themselves caught up in another fire.

Both Jason and Matthew had escaped. In all of the chaos outside, nobody had thought to look for them. Baymax had provided the police with extensive data about them; including their photographs. Rena didn't have much hope that they would be caught, she knew they were both too smart for that. Instead of hope, there was a sinking feeling of dread in her chest.

The door to her head opened and she turned at the movement. A man was stood in front of her, a clipboard clasped in his hands. 'You can go in now, if you wish. He's already looking better, we're lucky we caught the infection so fast. If everything goes to plan, the antibiotics should do their work and he should be out within a few days.'

Rena nodded, using the wall to help herself to her feet, 'okay.' She croaked, her voice scratchy from smoke and lack of use, 'thank you.'

Hiro shoved past her roughly, opening the door and slipping into the room without so much as a glance in her direction. Rena swallowed, her hand resting on the door. She was anxious to go in; fearful for what was going to happen once she stepped inside that room.

She carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside. Tadashi was sitting up in the bed, a few pillows behind his back. His face was tired and bruised, and there was a huge dressing on the back of his neck that Rena could see from where she stood. On the brighter side, he was awake and there was significantly less wires than the last time she saw him in hospital. Hiro was sat in a chair to Tadashi's left, his back straight and his eyes staring fixedly on a point on the wall opposite him as he had done outside.

Rena took a deep breath. 'Glad to see you're awake.'

Tadashi smiled weakly, 'glad to see you're here.'

She took a seat opposite Hiro. As she sat down, he turned his head away from her and stared at one of the drips next to his brother, still remaining just as silent as he was before.

Rena cleared her throat awkwardly. 'So uhhh... How are you?'

'Not too bad. I mean, feeling a little rough but I know it could be a lot worse.'

She nodded, 'well. That's... Good...'

'And how are you?'

'Great.' She replied, sighing and leaning back in her chair, 'just great.'

Tadashi's exhausted eyes drifted between his two siblings; Rena, with her shoulders slumped forwards looking like she wanted to cry, and Hiro, his arms folded across his chest and a look of fury mingled with despair on his face. 'Did I... Miss something here?'

Hiro laughed coldly. 'Yeah, you could say that.' He snapped.

Rena sighed, absent-mindedly pulling at a thread on one of her bandages. Now Hiro was going to tell him everything, and Tadashi would also hate her.

'Don't do that.' Tadashi said, slapping her hand away gently, 'you'll unravel it.'

She smiled weakly. 'Sorry. Tadashi... Do you remember anything at all?'

He shifted uncomfortably. 'Flashes of it. Like, a few random seconds at a time. I remember this creepy looking guy, and another blonde kid. And uhh... a gun? I... I think? I also remember being in a lot of pain for a few minutes... at least I think.'

Rena nodded thoughtfully. So he had no idea about the fire. 'Oh... Okay...'

'So uhh... Wanna catch me up? I feel like I missed a bit.'

Rena blinked. The poor guy - sitting alone in a hospital bed for all this time without having any idea why. 'Are... Are you sure?'

Tadashi looked worried. 'Why wouldn't I be sure?'

'Because... Uhh...'

'Because a lot of shit went down and we all almost died.' Hiro spat.

Tadashi's hand drifted up to the dressing on the back of his neck, 'and this?'

Rena sighed, 'I guess we'll get to that. So, on Friday, I went to your lab to check on you and out of nowhere you drugged me and knocked me out. I woke up in this tiny, filthy room with you standing over me.'

Hiro slowly turned his head to look at her. This was the first time he was hearing about it. 'I went up to the lab with Gogo and Wasabi, where we found all your papers all over the floor. Baymax scanned some of Rena's blood on the shelf.'

Tadashi flinched, 'what? How... How do I not remember this?'

Rena grimaced, 'we'll get to that. I was in this tiny room and then this guy, presumably the one you remember, was stood in the room with me. He said he was going to kill us all.'

'What the fuck? Why?'

Rena glanced at Hiro, who was staring determinedly at his feet. 'He had his reasons. You uh... Pinned me up against the wall. It was weird. Really weird. You wouldn't listen to me despite the fact that I was basically screaming at guys came in and tied me to a chair. They started... Uhhh... Waterboarding me.' Hiro's head snapped up and Tadashi had a hand clamped over his mouth. Neither of them spoke, so she took this as a sign to keep going. 'Yeah. They weren't exactly gentle, let's put it that way.'

'I saw.' Hiro said dully.

'What do you mean, you saw?' Tadashi asked slowly.

'They sent me a video. Of Rena. Screaming.'

Rena blinked, 'oh. Well.'

'That's how I knew to come for you.' Hiro said quietly.

They fell into silence. Rena kept opening her mouth to say more, but she was choking on her words. How could she tell Tadashi that he stood over her with a gun to her head? How could she tell him that she was the reason his prosthetic was missing? That she was the reason the warehouse were burnt down and all those unnamed guards had burnt to ashes inside it? How could she tell him that she ran back inside to drag out the boy who betrayed them in the first place? That she almost killed her older brother by slicing his neck open in a panic?

'Why do I remember a gun?' Tadashi asked softly.

Rena faltered, 'I... I don't know if you want to remember.'

'How bad could it have been?'

For the first time, Rena and Hiro locked eyes with one another - terrified brown eyes meeting terrified green. She blinked and the image of Tadashi standing above her was seared into her memory. On her temple was a slight tingling sensation, as though the gun was still pressed against it. 'Tadashi... You... You were going to kill me with it.' She whispered, so softly that she half-hoped he wouldn't have heard her.

Of course he heard her, ' no...I... I would never do that... I... Why don't I remember it?' He said tearfully, his voice shaking slightly. 'WHY?' He demanded, slightly louder.

Rena flinched. 'I-'

'Mind control.' Hiro replied simply, looking his older brother dead in the eye. 'You were being controlled by that freak Fournier. It wasn't your fault.'

Tadashi's eyes widened, his hand going up to his neck automatically, 'that actually... Kind of makes sense? I... I think? Rena.' He turned to his sister and grabbed her hand, 'please forgive me. That wasn't me, you know it wasn't. I would never do that to you. To either of you, I-'

'Tadashi,' she replied, tears rolling down her cheeks, 'there's nothing to forgive. It wasn't you, I know that.'

'And neither was that night after the fight.' Hiro said slowly, 'that wasn't you either... Was it? You were telling the truth.'

Tadashi nodded slowly, 'I would never lie to you.'

'Because it was Brian.' Rena said suddenly. 'The night you attacked Hiro was the night that he implemented that chip. Fournier told me he did it.'

Hiro's face twisted in rage, 'I know that kid! I beat him in a fight once! I'll kill him! I'll fucking kill him-'

'There's no need.' Rena replied flatly, 'he's already dead.'

Hiro sank back into his chair, '…Oh.'

'Yeah. Oh.'

Rena made no attempt to wipe away her tears, instead reverting back to pulling on her bandages. Tadashi made no move to stop her this time. 'I umm... Hiro, there's been something I wanted to ask you. Fournier... He said, uh, he said that you... Killed someone? His... Wife? Or…Something?'

Tadashi coughed loudly, seemingly choking on air. 'That's not true! That's not true!' He exclaimed loudly, his gaze wandering over to Hiro '...Is it?'

Hiro looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole. 'I didn't kill her! I beat Fournier at a fight, and he was angry with me. Like, really angry. I was cornered afterwards and he was going to kill me. She was holding me back and I managed to slip away as he threw this knife. It missed me and killed her.' He rambled, not daring to meet either of them in the eye. 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!' He gasped, pulling on his sleeves. He started sobbing, bringing his arms up to his face, 'it was my fault! All of it! I'm sorry, you must hate me. God knows I would. I... I do. I'm sorry.'

Rena and Tadashi stared at one another for a second, digesting this new information. Then, they both moved at the same time. Rena climbed awkwardly over the bed, careful of Tadashi. She crouched on the floor next to Hiro and wrapped her good arm around his shoulders, letting him cry onto her t-shirt. Awkwardly, she pulled him up by his shoulders and hoisted him onto the bed next to Tadashi, who pulled both of them into a group hug. Rena rested her head on his arm, tears still falling down her own face.

'We don't hate you.' Tadashi said softly, 'I promise you that. It's not your fault. You made a mistake, we can't hold that against you. He's a psycho, you could never have known.'

'I should've stayed away from him! I knew he was dangerous!'

'No, Hiro, I'm sorry.' Rena said, 'I should've looked out for you more. Should've realised sooner, and stopped you from going. It's my fault just as much as it is yours.'

'And mine.' Tadashi said, nodding.

They sat there for what felt like hours, crying and holding onto one another. Rena closed her eyes, wishing she could just stay like that forever. No need to face the consequences or worry about anyone. She could just exist in that moment.

Eventually, Rena pulled herself away. She glanced at one of the shiny, red burns on her hand and looked at Tadashi, 'there's... Something else we failed to mention.'

Tadashi swiped a tear away and stared at her hand, 'another fire. They told me.' His voice was shaking as he said it.

'Yeah… I… I started it though.' Rena said softly, 'to get us out of there. It was the dumbest thing I've ever done. I'm sorry.'

Tadashi was silent for a moment, 'you probably saved our asses, though.'

'Are you gonna tell him what else you did?' Hiro said quietly, clenching his fists. 'Or should I?'

Tadashi's eyes darted between the pair of them. 'Rena, what did you do?'

She was flooded with shame for the hundredth time since it happened. 'Do you know Caine?'

'The blonde kid? Yeah…Why?'

'He's a spy.' Hiro spat bitterly, 'he's been telling his boss all about us for months. That's why he avoided me.'

'Oh shit.' Tadashi said quietly, sinking down into the pillows, 'I thought you two were close?' He said, addressing Rena. 'I swear you were into him?'

She very visibly flinched. I have to tell him. 'Uh, no. Definitely not into him. But I, I was pretty good friends with him.'

'Damn. I'm sorry Rena.'

'I ran back into the fire for him.' She said quickly, desperate to get it out into the open. 'I went back in and dragged him out. I know, I shouldn't have because he betrayed me like that, and he's a bit evil or whatever. But I... I couldn't let him die. Not like that. I couldn't let anyone get hurt by fire again. Not again. Not ever again. I'm sorry.'

Hiro glared at her, 'you promised me. You promised me you'd never leave.'

'And I haven't! I'm okay!'

'Do you know how that felt? Turning around and realising that you'd run into that fire? Just like he had?' He said, pointing at Tadashi, 'do you have ANY IDEA how terrifying that was?'

'I know exactly what that's like!' She said angrily, 'I was there the first time too, in case you haven't forgotten.'

'And you still did it anyway.' Hiro replied, stunned.

She nodded, 'and I'm sorry. But I couldn't let him die.'

'He almost killed us. All of us.'

'That was Fournier. That had nothing to do with him.'

Hiro scoffed, 'you don't even care, do you?'

'Of course I do! I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry.' Rena glanced at Tadashi, who was staring at his hands and not saying a word. Her eyes drifted to the empty space on the bed where his leg should be, and she was brought unpleasantly back to the SFIT fire. Screaming at him to stay. The building exploding. Dragging Hiro to the hedges. The ambulances. Warm blood running down her leg. Clutching onto the police tape. Seeing them drag his body out. Sitting in the hospital for hours afterwards. 'I am sorry, truly. It was reckless and stupid, and I shouldn't have put you in that position again. But I'm okay now! I'm okay.' She turned to Tadashi, 'please forgive me. Both of you.'

'It's okay.' Tadashi choked out, 'I'm not angry.'

'You should be.'

'Now we're even.'

She laughed quietly before addressing Hiro, 'I think we're even too.'

The ghost of a smile was on her younger brother's face. 'Okay. My Christmas present better had be good.'

Rena rolled her eyes, 'what if I haven't got you one?'

'Then I really won't forgive you.'


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Only one more chapter to go after this (then the QnA chapter) and we've finished this story! Then I'll be moving onto a highschool story but I'll be taking a bit of a break first. Not necessarily a huge one - and it might just mean that I don't upload as often. I'm also writing a book(!) right now, a podcast, and a script for something else. I'm also a student so I have a lot to do rn (not that I'm complaining- I genuinely do love writing!) so yeah - if I disappear for a bit y'all know why. As always, support is always appreciated in the form of kudos, comments, etc. (Sorry for this chapter taking so long - I've genuinely never gone back and read through and edited something so many times. As a lesbian myself, it means a lot that I get this right. Anyway)  
> :D

'Aunt Cass says she's outside.' Tadashi said, glancing up from his phone. 'Only she can't remember where the room is.'

Rena and Hiro were sat opposite one another in the plastic hospital chairs. Rena was tuning Tadashi's guitar and Hiro was playing a game on his phone. It was the morning after they'd all seen each other for the first time since the warehouse, and Tadashi was due to be discharged later on in the day.

'I'm not surprised, to be fair.' Rena said, picking the B string with her index finger.

'Should I just text her the directions?'

'Nah. This hellhole is a maze.' Hiro said, standing up and stretching, 'I'll go meet her. Is she in the car park?'

'Yeah, she says she's in the multi-storey.'

'Right, I'll be back in a minute then.' He replied, saluting them sarcastically and turning for the door.

'Wait!' Rena called, 'do you want me to go with you?'

'Nah! I'm good.'

'Good.' She muttered under her breath, turning the tuners for the lower E string, 'I can't be arsed to go anyway.'

Tadashi laughed, 'then why'd you offer?'

'Because I'm a nice person Tadashi! Duh.' She picked up the pick from next to her and played a few chords, 'not bad, eh?'

'Not bad at all, I gotta admit.'

'Any requests?' She said, grinning. 'I can do you- oh wait hang on.'

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, squinting at the small text on the screen. The guitar slipped out of her hand and landed on the floor at her feet.

'Be careful! That was expensive! …Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?'

Rena didn't reply, she only stared at the message displayed on her screen.

Clara: Hi! Sorry I haven't replied, I've been busy. What's up? Omg it's literally been ages haha

Just when she thought things couldn't get any more confusing and weird. Really? She was texting her back NOW? It had been days! Weeks! How busy could she possibly have been? Did she have the right to be annoyed? It had been years since she'd last seen her, and they'd technically never even dated. Knowing Rena's luck, Clara probably had a super hot girlfriend. Or, even worse, she didn't even like girls and had a super hot boyfriend.

Did Rena still even like her? She could barely remember what she looked like; the only thing that remained was the fluttery feeling in her chest. Her vanilla mixed with French toast scent. Her poetry and the way she always made Rena feel at home.

Shit. Maybe she did still like her.

'You okay there?' Tadashi asked, leaning over as far as he could and waving a hand in her face. 'Ow. Shit, shouldn't have done that.'

'Dumbass,' Rena said, her voice trembling. Her eyes darted back down to the phone screen, already trying to formulate the perfect response. Should she not just leave it? Surely that would be better for the both of them? She was hoping for something she knew full well she couldn't have; pining for a person that might as well not exist in her world.

She looked up at Tadashi and felt a hundred different emotions at once. It was a horrible combination of shame, fear, sadness, awkwardness and guilt. She still hadn't told him. She was supposed to tell them everything - that's how they had always operated. And she'd learnt the hard way that straying away from that wouldn't end well for anyone. Rena had almost died and there was only one person in the world that would know. The idea of that made her feel ill - almost as ill as the thought of coming out.

'What's going on?'

She slowly picked up the guitar and rested it on her knee, gently plucking at the strings. Hiro would probably be gone for a while. Maybe this was her chance to tell him. 'I have something to tell you.' She said finally.

Tadashi blinked, 'okay? Fire away.'

Rena didn't look at him, her gaze was fixed on the guitar strings. 'I meant to tell you ages ago, but I was never able to find the words. And I was scared. I am scared.' She said quietly, still not looking at him, 'but I think we're past the point of secrets now. I mean, we used to tell each other everything. I don't know what happened - but everything's fucked up now.'

Tadashi laughed, 'well, that's an eloquent way of putting it.'

Rena smiled, 'I just... I didn't want to tell you this because I thought everything would change. That you'd look at me differently or... Or something. There's been a lot of unwelcome change these past few years and I don't want anymore, and I know you don't either. But... I've thought about this long and hard. I have, I really have. And having a gun pointed at your head really changes your perspective on life.'

Tadashi winced, 'again, sorry about that.'

She waved him off, 'yeah… Whatever. I just... Don't want to shy away from it anymore.' She added softly.

Tadashi leaned over and pulled the guitar out of her hands, setting it on the bed beside him. 'Well… What is it?'

Rena didn't speak for a while. She stared at her hands, tears in her eyes. She didn't quite realise how nerve wracking this would be.

'I'm gay.'

For a second, she thought he hadn't heard him. There was a roaring in her ears and tears in her eyes. 'And I'm sorry for not telling, alright? I just was so... So afraid of things changing and not going well and I don't want anyone to change their perceptions of me I'm fine as I am and what if you actually are secretly homophobic and I've made a huge mistake and-'

'Woah! Slow down.' Tadashi said, 'slow down, okay?'

She nodded, wiping away the tears, 'this is stupid. I'm making it into such a big deal. I'm sorry, I-'

'Rena. Will you let me speak?' He asked quietly. She nodded and he continued. 'It is a big deal. It's a huge deal! And I'm not mad for you not telling me, you needed time to figure things out and that's fine. Okay? I'm not mad. Jesus, I could never be mad.'

Rena was not attempting to cover the fact she was crying - the tears were coming thick and fast. Every emotion she'd repressed since high school was coming out all at once, leaving her emotional and dizzy.

Tadashi leaned forwards as far as he could and grabbed her arm, 'now pull your chair in closer, idiot.'

She did as she was told, dragging the chair closer so she was able to collapse into his arms. 'Thank you.' She whispered between sobs, 'for everything.'

'You're such an idiot. You don't have to thank me,' Tadashi replied, his voice shaking with suppressed sobs, 'I just want the best for you, for both of you. No secrets from now on, yeah?'

'Okay. No secrets.'

'Good. And... Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me, it means a lot. And… Y'know, thanks for saving my life and stuff.'

Rena pulled away from him and wiped her eyes on her sleeves, 'let's just hope I never have to do it again. Because if I do, I'll kill you.'

Tadashi laughed and settled back into his cushions, 'believe me, I've had enough danger for a lifetime.'

'You can fucking say that again.' Rena replied tiredly. She grabbed the guitar and grinned at him, 'okay, now that's out the way with. How do you feel about Tenacious D?'  
\-------------------------------  
'Alright Mr Hamada, you're free to go. Remember what we told you, and if you have any concerns whatsoever you're to come right back here. Am I clear?'

Rena had the guitar bag on her back, lingering behind Tadashi and Cass as they were talking to the doctor. Tadashi was free to go, but because his prosthetic had burnt away in the fire he was stuck in a wheelchair. He had tried to argue for his rights to crutches but the doctors said he was still too weak to use them.

'You're working on another prosthetic, right?' Rena asked Hiro quietly.

He nodded, 'I have all the designs and plans still saved, it shouldn't take me long at all.'

'Good. I'd feel even worse if he was stuck in that wheelchair for any longer than necessary.'

'Alright, are we ready to go?' Cass said cheerily, grabbing onto the handles of Tadashi's wheelchair.

'Can we get pizza for dinner?' Hiro said, hurrying to catch up with them.

Rena walked just behind them, staring at her shoes as she walked. She hadn't texted Clara back, and was trying to come up with the perfect response in her head that didn't scream I'M STILL HOPELESSLY IN LOVE WITH YOU EVEN THOUGH IT'S BEEN YEARS AND YOU DON'T FEEL THE SAME!

She stumbled slightly and sighed when she realised her shoelace was untied, 'I'll catch up in a second!' She called down the corridor, crouching down outside a door and adjusting the guitar slightly before tying the lace in a quick double bow.

As she straightened out, her eyes rested on the name plaque just under the door handle.

Caine Newlin

Huh. It was funny. All this time of knowing him, and she never even bothered to ask for his last name. Caine Newlin.

Her hand rested on the door, about to push it open. What was she doing? This guy had almost killed her and her brothers. She'd saved his life. There was no need for any more contact - he was in debt to her and she could live with that just fine.

Her hand was still resting there when a kind looking nurse walked over to her, 'oh, are you going in dearie?'

'Uh… No… I don't…'

'Do you know him?'

'I think I do, yeah.'

'The poor laddie,' she said sadly, 'he was involved with the big fire down at that old warehouse by the river. Did you hear about that on the news?'

'Uh… Yes. Yes, I did actually.'

'Bless him. He's had no visitors at all. No family or friends. I feel awfully sad for the young man, I have to say.'

Rena felt a wave of sadness crash over her. No matter what Caine had done, she still felt awful at the idea that he had no visitors. Then again, he'd never told her about anyone in his life that would care enough to visit. It was horrible to think that he had awoken to an empty room. 'Yes, that is sad.'

The nurse patted her on the arm, 'well, you have a nice day now, dearie.'

'And you!' Rena called as she walked back over to the nurse's station.

Her hand released the handle and she turned to follow her family, but something stopped her before she took even one step. She sighed softly and opened the door, quickly slipping inside the room.

He was asleep. Funny how he still look troubled despite being unconscious.

Rena edged towards him slowly, as though he was a dangerous animal about to pounce. His skin was almost entirely covered in bandages - what little skin she could see was burnt red raw. Looking at it made her own injuries itch. His left leg was suspended in the air, wrapped in a cast.

There was a breathing tube in his mouth and he was hooked up to at least three different machines. The soft beeping was the only sound in the room. Rena stood there, staring at the sad sight in front of her. There were no cards or flowers that had decorated her bedside when she was sick. The table next to him was sickeningly empty.

In that moment, Rena couldn't find the strength to be angry at him. She just felt terribly sad for him. Which was crazy considering how he has be treated her, and she knew that anger would come eventually.

But for now? It was just sadness. Sadness for herself and sadness for the boy with no visitors.

She glanced out the window and noticed a small flower bush just outside. She cautiously stepped past the machines and cranked the window open, taking in a huge gulp of air as she did so. Gently, she plucked a flower from the bush and placed it on the table next to him.

She opened her mouth to say something, but no words would come. Had she forgiven him? No. Did she feel sorry for him? Yes. Did she still care for him? Deep down, she knew she did.

'Get better soon.' She whispered to the almost silent room, softly shutting the door on her way out.

She took her time making it back to the car. She didn't want the rest of them to see her crying.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In regards to the high school AU I said I was gonna do, I've changed my mind a little. I'm gonna write a third installment that will follow the series, i.e. using the same characters and villains, etc. I'll add my own subplots in but I'm just gonna have fun with it.  
> I probably will still write the high school AU, but I might just write it all as one long chapter and post it at that. So yeah. Lmao I know I keep changing my mind but what are you gonna do.
> 
> Thank you for all your support and for sticking with this until the end. 100k words!
> 
> ENJOY THE LAST CHAPTER OH YEAH WOO YEAH (I know it's not technically very seasonal but just go with it... It was supposed to go out on Christmas day but as you can see, it got a little delayed.)

'SWEET JESUS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'

Hiro was stood over her, his eyes inches away from her own. He had a Santa had jammed on his head and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to wake his older sister by standing above her bed and blasting Jingle Bells.

'It's Christmas!' He said joyfully, pressing pause on the music.

'Yes, I'm aware of what the date is!' Rena replied, pulling the covers over herself and turning over, 'what time is it?'

'7am.'

She groaned and closed her eyes, 'can I not have another hour?'

'Excuse me! Where's your Christmas spirit?'

'Dead. Gone. I'm tired-'

'MERRY CHRISTMAS!' Tadashi yelled, walking into the room with his arms outstretched, limping ever so slightly. He had tinsel wrapped around his jumper and baubles hanging from his ears. 'Rena. Get up. I want to do stockings.'

Rena rolled her eyes and grinned, 'not you too? Come on, I expected more from you.'

Hiro crossed his arms, 'really? You expected more from Tadashi? At Christmas?'

She laughed. He had a point. Tadashi was obsessed with Christmas. He was one of those people that did his Christmas shopping in summer and insisted that November 1st was the perfect time to start playing Mariah Carey at any given opportunity. Normally she'd be a lot more pissed off at being awoken so early. But after the year they'd had? The Hamada's deserved an amazing Christmas. And she wasn't going to be the one to ruin that - even if she had only had three hours of sleep. 'Yeah okay, fair enough. Right, fine. Just fuck off and let me get dressed.'

Tadashi placed a hand over his heart dramatically, acting as though she had fatally shot him, 'your language disgusts me. On Christmas day and all.'

'Oh I'll give you something to be angry about-'

'Alright fine!' He replied, holding up his hands in defeat, 'Hiro, let's go and put Mochi in a Christmas sweater.'

'YES.'

The door swung shut behind them and Rena was left alone at last. She grabbed her phone and quickly glanced at the notifications. A couple of texts wishing her a Merry Christmas. Hiro, Tadashi and Fred in the group chat. Nothing from Clara.

'Timezones.' She muttered as she pulled a t-shirt on.

Her and Clara had been texting on and off. Rena was trying way too hard not to come off as clingy or desperate when she was fully aware of how clingy and desperate she was. Clara seemed distant and cool as opposed to the way that she used to be, but that was probably because she didn't want to talk to Rena and was just doing it out of formality.

Nothing from Caine either. Not that she'd expected it. Rena hadn't seen him since the hospital, nor had she spoken to him. She debated blocking his number and socials, but something stopped her. The sadness had passed, though. When she looked at the burns and the scars on her arms, or Fred's arm still in a sling, or the way Tadashi limped as he got used to his new prosthetic, she felt pure anger. Anger at Fournier and Caine and the world for being so hopelessly unfair.

She sighed. It was Christmas - not the time to think about all that. She was determined to have a nice day and thoughts about Caine or Clara were not going to ruin that for her. She'd worry about it later.

Rena stepped out into the hallway and closed her bedroom door shut behind her, almost tripping on Mochi. She picked him up and kissed the top of his head, 'are you hiding from them?' She whispered to the cat.

'About time!' Hiro was stood at the bottom of the stairs, 'and you found Mochi!'

'Leave the poor cat alone!'

'Come on, he'd love being in a Christmas sweater.'

Mochi jumped out Rena's arms and went scrambling up the stairs away from him. 'I don't think he would.' Rena replied, laughing.

'You don't KNOW that! Come on, we're all waiting for you.'

Rena stepped into the living room, grinning at the pile of presents sat at Tadashi's feet. Aunt Cass was in the kitchen, busying herself with making breakfast. 'Merry Christmas!'

'And a happy new year!' Rena replied, sinking down on one of the chairs in the room, 'what's for breakfast?'

'Pancakes!' She trilled from the kitchen, waving the pan in the air, 'seeing as it's a special occasion!'

'Brilliant. Although, I'd have anything. As long as Tadashi doesn't make it.'

'HEY! The fact that everyone got food poisoning was NOTHING to do with me.'

'Yeah. Sure. Whatever you wanna say. But I'm never trusting you to cook anything ever again.'

'What about my brownies?'

'…Okay apart from the brownies.'

'Can we do stockings now?' Hiro asked impatiently, eyeing them up greedily.

'Shouldn't we wait until after breakfast-'

'Oh, go on! Open them now!' Aunt Cass said cheerily, 'I'd hate you keep you waiting!'

'You heard the woman!' Tadashi said, grinning, 'now pass me mine!'

Rena reached over to the pile and passed Tadashi's to him. They didn't hang them on the fireplace, instead they lay in a small heap next to the TV. They each had their name stitched onto the top of them - something Rena had done many years before. The stitching was messy and you could barely read what they said, but Aunt Cass refused to let her unpick them.

Rena reached in and pulled out the first thing she rested her hand on. At first it appeared to be a string, but upon further inspection she realised it was a friendship bracelet. A friendship bracelet that had a colour scheme suspiciously close to the lesbian pride flag. She looked up and saw that Tadashi was grinning at her, a knowing glint in his eye.

'Oh, isn't that lovely Rena!' Aunt Cass called from the kitchen, 'Tadashi put it in last night when I was putting the stockings out!'

'Did he now?' Rena said, raising her eyebrows.

'I did, yeah.'

She threw a pillow at him, laughing. Rena hadn't come out to anyone else yet, it was still a secret between the two of them. Of course he had to subtly reference it in any way possible. 'Well, thanks! It's nice.'

'Oh, you're so welcome. I knew it would suit you well.'

'Am I missing something?' Hiro said, holding a robot keychain and looking between the two of them, 'there seems to be a joke going on here.'

'Nothing at all!' Rena said, shaking her head, 'nothing you need to concern yourself with.' Hiro went back to his stocking and she mouthed 'I HATE YOU!'

Lovingly, of course.

It was mid-afternoon. The presents had been opened and dinner plates had been cleared away. They were sitting in the living room; Cass, Tadashi and Hiro on the couch with Rena sat in the armchair next to them, holding a cup of coffee. Tadashi's prosthetic lay lying on the floor next to his pile of presents. Rena was more at peace than she'd been for a long time.

'What movie do we wanna watch?' Aunt Cass asked the three of them.

Rena tore herself away from her new book that Wasabi had gotten her, 'I don't mind, whatever everyone else wants to watch.'

'Nothing sad though!' Tadashi said, 'it's Christmas, I don't wanna cry.'

'You cry at every movie you've ever watched.' Hiro said from next to him on the couch.

'I have not!'

'You cried at the EMOJI MOVIE!'

Rena laughed, 'I forgot you did that!'

'What about How to Train Your Dragon?' Aunt Cass said, hovering on it with the remote, 'I love that movie!'

'Yes!' Rena said enthusiastically, 'this movie is the BEST!'

Hiro rolled his eyes and continued to sketch something on his new tablet, 'yeah, it's alright. As long as Tadashi doesn't start bawling.'

The oldest Hamada laughed and elbowed him, 'no promises there.'

The movie started and Rena closed her book, curling into the armchair. The music started and she sighed happily. So far, so good.

About twenty minutes later, she was dropping asleep when the doorbell rang.

'Who could that be?' Aunt Cass asked, confused. 'Is it one of your friends?'

'I don't think any of them said they were coming?' Tadashi said, 'I'll go check.'

Rena shook her head, glancing at his prosthetic on the floor, 'nah, you stay there. I'll go.'

Tadashi nodded and sank back into the cushions. 'Okay. Thanks.'

'Let me know who it is!' Aunt Cass said, 'do you want me to pause it?'

'Nah.' Rena replied, standing up and stretching, 'I've seen it a hundred times. Besides, I'll only be a second. I'm still taking this though.' She added, grabbing her mug from the small table next to her. She ran downstairs as quickly as she could without spilling anything. She took a huge sip of coffee as she flung the door open, instantly being hit in the face with a huge blast of cold air, making her splutter unexpectedly.

Caine was stood in the doorframe, hunched over in the wind. His glasses had snow on them and he already looked like he was regretting his decision. 'Merry Christmas.'

Rena dropped the mug of coffee. It smashed on the floor, drenching her socks. She didn't even notice, all she could do was stare at him with her mouth hanging open. She'd come to close to having a good day. And now he'd decided to show up? The pure audacity!

'Rena? Are you okay? Who is it?' Aunt Cass was calling down to her.

'You shouldn't be here,' she hissed to Caine angrily, 'why the fuck are you here? Why today?'

'I-'

'If Tadashi sees you here he'll kill you.' She buried her head in her hands, 'for fucks sake Caine!'

'Listen, Rena. I just wanted-'

'Oi, who is it? DID YOU SMASH MY FAVOURITE MUG?' Tadashi was stood at the top of the stairs, frowning down at her.

'It's no one!' She replied, stepping out into the cold and pushing Caine along with her, 'I'll be back in a minute!' She slammed the door shut behind her and leant against it, giving Caine a look of fury. 'Now my socks are wet. Thanks for that.'

Caine shifted uncomfortably, staring determinedly at his trainers. 'S...Sorry.' He muttered sheepishly.

'Well, if that's all you're here to say then I'm going back inside. Merry Christmas to you too.' She spat, turning on her heel and placing her hand on the door handle.

'They arrested him!' Caine blurted, 'the police. They got him. Both of them, at one of their hideouts.'

Rena faltered and whirled around to face him again. 'What?'

'Yeah I uhh... Gave them a list of his hideouts. It was pretty easy for them from there.'

'Why did you do that?' She asked, folding her arms and leaning against the door, 'I thought you were on their side?'

'You saved my life, Rena. It was the least I could do.'

'Oh. Right. Well. If that's all you came here to say-'

'I came to tell you how sorry I am. For everything.' He said awkwardly, 'and I know you hate me right now and you probably never want to see me again. But I am sorry. Truly.'

'Right.' She said scathingly, 'I bet you can see why I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to forgive you.'

He laughed weakly, 'I don't blame you. I just- I didn't want it to come to that. I never meant to hurt you. That's all... That's all I wanted to say.'

'Didn't want to hurt me?' Rena's voice cracked, 'you spied on me for MONTHS. You pretended to be my friend. You almost killed me.'

Caine winced, 'I know. It's... It's a long story.'

'Well,' she replied, 'I'd like to hear it. If you don't mind.'

Caine sighed and leant against the wall, the burns on his face looking extra bad in the winter sunshine. He looked more exhausted than a man three times his age, and just as old. 'Fine. When I was growing up, I had a pretty happy family. It was me, my Mom and Dad, and my older brother. We weren't perfect - we were really poor, actually. But... We were happy. Things were great. Or at least I thought they were. My Mom killed herself when I was thirteen. She didn't leave a note. I don't know why she did it. And I never will.'

Rena sucked in a breath, 'you... You never told me that.'

'It's not exactly the kind of thing I like to fondly look back on.'

'No, no. I... I get it.'

'My...Uhh.. My Dad didn't last much longer. He.. He really loved her. For weeks, he didn't do anything. He just kinda... Stared at the wall. He stopped listening to anything my brother and I had to say. He stopped driving us to school. He'd go to work and then go drinking straight afterwards, and he wouldn't get home until after midnight most nights. He just... Stopped caring.'

'And... Your brother?'

He smiled softly, 'Aidan, he was called. Tadashi... He reminds me a lot of him sometimes. He dropped out of school so he could take care of us. He got a job that he worked full-time. My Dad was too busy sustaining his drinking habits to worry about food or rent. Aidan hated it, I know he did. But he never let on. Anyway, my Dad died when I was fifteen. I was... I was there when it happened. I held his hand and watched the light go out of his eyes.' Caine said quietly, wiping his eyes.

Rena stared at him, stunned. 'I had... I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me?'

'I was supposed to be undercover.'

'So... So how does this link to Jason?'

Caine sighed loudly and stared up at the sky for a moment before answering , 'we went to live with my Uncle. The man hated the pair of us - wanted nothing to do with us. We were kinda all we had for a while. Then... Then I guess the stress got to him. Aidan. He... Started getting involved with some shit. At first it was just weed and tobacco. Then, pretty soon he got onto the harder stuff. Like... Meth and that. I noticed it happen, but I never intervened. I guess I just didn't want to think that my older brother was slipping away from me. Eventually, it caught up to him. He came home absolutely off his head and one thing lead to another and he gave my Uncle a black eye. He called the police and Aidan was arrested for aggravated assault, and then a load of other drug stuff. My Uncle never told me what prison he went to, and I haven't spoken to him since. He was only eighteen.'

'Caine... I... I'm so sorry. God, I... I can't even imagine…'

He sniffed, 'yeah it's... It's whatever. I left my Uncle's house the day after my eighteenth birthday. I stole his car and left him a note saying he'd never see me again. After a few weeks of sleeping in my car, I found my way to a bot fight. One thing lead to another and I found myself getting pissed with Jason and all his cronies. The next thing I knew, I was in his gang and running errands for him. And it was great at first. For the first time in years, I felt like I was around people who actually liked me. I had a place to sleep and all I had to do was collect cash and intimidate people from time to time. But… As I got further in, Fournier started to show his true colours. He was never very bloodthirsty himself - he often made other people do it. Some dark shit happened to people just for not doing a job well enough. I realised how serious it was after I watched him snap a guy's neck for not bringing him enough cash.'

'Holy shit.'

'Yeah. He has a reputation for a reason. Anyway, once he got with Marissa, he calmed down a bit. He was less violent; more easy on people who wronged him. We had some great times, despite everything. I could almost forget I was in a gang with some of the most terrifying people in the city. But that all changed when she died.'

'When… When Hiro killed her?' Rena whispered.

He shook his head, 'he didn't kill her. I think… I think Fournier just wanted someone to put the blame on. Someone to direct his anger towards. Hiro was the easiest option for him. He told me to take a job at SFIT to spy on him - to spy on you. I took it without hesitation. I didn't have a choice. He'd kill me if I refused.'

Rena let out a shaky breath and buried her head in her hands, 'Jesus christ Caine.'

'I was… Really angry at Hiro at first. Not just because I'd leaned towards the idea that he was a murderer, but because he… He's everything I could have been. He's smart. Brave. Loyal. He's got a family that loves him. Friends who love him. I… I grew to resent him because life is so easy for him even though he does botfighting and he was involved with the death of Marissa.'

Rena shook her head, suddenly feeling defensive of her little brother, 'trust me, his life has been anything but easy. Let's just say that ten year olds and nasty high schoolers don't mix. He… He could easily be in the position that you're in now. He was close.'

Caine blinked, 'I… Wow. I didn't know that.'

'Yeah, well. He's a brave kid.'

'And he's got two amazing older siblings. I've seen how much you care for one another.'

'Yeah, but you get it. Right? You cared for Aidan?'

'I did. He was… So much like Tadashi.'

Rena smiled sadly, 'if he's anything like Tadashi then I bet you miss him a lot, huh?'

Caine had tears in his eyes, 'I do. A hell of a lot. I think if he was still around I never would've gotten to this position in the first place. Rena… I'm sorry. I truly am. I didn't know what else to do. I knew he would kill me if I didn't do as he said. And… I had nothing else to loose. I never realised the magnitude of what he was doing until it happened. I'm a fucking coward. I know I am. And you'll never have to see me again. I'll leave SFIT. I'll leave the state. I know you must hate me, and with good reason. I don't want to ruin your life anymore than I already have. So.… I guess this is goodbye. Thank you. For everything.'

He turned on his heel and began to walk away. Rena watched him go, a million thoughts racing through her head. She didn't know how to feel. Sad? Angry? It was a weird combination of both. She had no idea about any of that. He'd been through so much that it made her feel ill. It would just be best if she let him walk away, out of her life. Things would be so much easier that way.

But since when did Rena Hamada ever like things to be easy?

'Caine! Wait!' She went flying after him, running in her socks in the snow. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back towards the lucky cat.

Caine stumbled slightly, almost falling onto her. 'Rena, please. I know you're angry. It would be better for the both of us if I-'

'Shut up and let me speak for a minute. All that shit you went through? I'm sorry it happened. I really, truly am. Caine, you've been through what most people couldn't even bear. And yet you're still standing here.'

'Standing here after I almost killed you.'

She shook her head, 'forget about that. Just… Listen to me. Your past does not define you. The people around you and your situation does NOT define you. Okay? You are your own person. You're not your Father, or your brother. Neither are you your Uncle and you're definitely not Jason Fournier. You're Caine Newlin. You're strong. And you're kind. And you're brave, and you never give up. You're funny and you're sweet and you always try your hardest. And you have two choices. You can let what has happened to you get to you and shape the person you will become, or you can step away from it. You can make your own path and be the person you want to be.'

'Rena,' Caine sobbed, 'I ruined your life!'

'No you didn't! You were placed into an impossible situation, okay? Anyone else would have done the same. And, for the record, you didn't ruin my life. At all. Your friendship has been wonderful Caine. It really has. You make my days brighter! Even if you did try to kill me,' Rena was crying as well, clinging to the front of his jacket. 'Stop being so hard on yourself. I don't hate you. I could never. And I forgive you. Of course I do.'

'Rena, I don't deserve this.'

'No, you do! You do. Please, I want you in my life. You make it better. I don't care about the past, it's behind us. Don't leave SFIT because of me. Because of any of us.'

Caine looked at her for a second, then pulled her into an embrace. Rena clung to him and cried onto his shoulder. 'I'm so sorry about your parents. About your brother.'

'And I'm sorry about your parents. And your brothers.'

She laughed and pulled away from him, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, 'shut up.'

He grinned, 'you know I'm not very good at that.'

'God, we're such a mess.'

'You don't need to tell me twice.'

'What the HELL are you doing here?' Tadashi was stood leaning in the doorframe, holding a handful of coffee stained tissues. He was looking directly at Caine with a look of fury on his face.

Caine paled, 'listen, I-'

Tadashi dropped the tissues and came tearing through the snow, slipping slightly. He stopped inches away and jabbed his finger into Caine's chest. 'You have some nerve, you know. How dare you? How DARE you?'

'Tadashi!' Rena grabbed his hand and pulled him away, 'whatever patriarchal notion you have going on right now that makes you think you have to save me, can it.'

Tadashi stared at her, 'Rena, do you even remember what this guy did?' He turned to Caine, 'how dare you speak to her? How dare you come up to her and beg for her forgiveness?'

'Tadashi,' Caine began, 'I... I'm really sorry, okay? There are no words that I can say that can make it up to you-'

'Shut up. The both of you.' Rena said angrily, 'NEITHER of you get to speak for me. Caine... Just... Go home.' She looked at him with what she hoped was a kind expression, 'I'll see you later.'

Caine nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets, 'okay. I- okay. I'm going. Merry Christmas Tadashi, mate.'

Tadashi watched him go furiously, 'I'm gonna call the cops.'

'Don't you dare.' Rena hissed, 'don't you dare.'

'HOW are you on his side right now? He almost KILLED you?! What the fuck did he say to you? Did he threaten you?'

She sighed and grabbed his arm, 'let's just... Get back into the warmth. I'm fine, I am.'

He looked doubtful but followed her without resistance. Rena got into the house and slammed the door shut behind her, pulling her socks off and dumping them onto the floor.

'Rena, seriously. What did he say?'

Her eyes were watering. 'A lot of things, alright?'

'Like what?'

'They've arrested Fournier.'

Tadashi slipped and he grabbed onto the banister to keep steady. 'They... What?'

'They arrested him. Because of Caine. He gave them a list of hideouts.'

'Why? He's on their side?'

'He's not! I promise you, he's not. He... He had no other choice. Just trust me, okay?'

'Rena, you know I trust you. This is all just a bit difficult to believe-'

'Are you guys okay?' Aunt Cass called down the stairs, 'you've been ages! You're missing the movie!'

Rena sighed, 'I'll explain later. I promise you I will. Just... Let's just forget about all that for a while. It's Christmas!'

Tadashi nodded, 'okay. But only because it's Christmas.'

'Good. Race you up the stairs?'


	41. QNA!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the long awaited QnA chapter! What better way to send this off, huh?
> 
> Thank you so much to all of you for your wonderful questions! I didn't quite answer them all, but I had a good go at most of them that I received. Your support with the creation of this story has been incredible, and I hope you stick around for the next one (which is up right now! First chapter is going up soon I promise!)
> 
> I really loved writing this story, and I love these characters to death. Thank you for giving me the platform to be able to share my work, and for giving your thoughts on it. It's so appreciated, you have no idea.

Aunt Cass, how are you holding up through all of this? And what is your favourite thing about running a café?

Well, this past year has been very difficult, of course it has. But you know, we're pushing through it. I don't know what I would do without them though, they're the ones keeping me going I suppose. I mean, I do worry about them a lot. Of course I do. But they're very strong, and I know they can get through this. As for the café, I love the people. So many different people wander in, all with different stories and personalities. It's a treat talking to them and learning more about them. It's a welcome distraction as well, when things get tough.

Gogo, how did you learn to skate?

I taught myself. When I was a kid, I begged and begged my parents for a skateboard. Eventually, they agreed and I taught myself on the driveway. It was a pain, and I injured myself more often than not. But I got really good at it, eventually. A coupe, of years later I got my first pair of skates. And I realised that that was where my passion was. Skating. Maybe I should have got a teacher or forced one of the neighbours to teach me, but I still managed just fine.

Wasabi, do you like being a superhero?

I don't know if I would necessarily call myself a 'superhero.' It's terrifying though - there's so much danger and so many ways everything could go wrong! But all the same, there's nothing that can compare to the feeling of victory. I don't enjoy the fighting, but there's nothing better than the feeling of winning. And the adrenaline rush. So yeah, I guess I do.

Fred, when did you start reading comic books?

Oh man, I've been reading comic books for years! My Dad is a superhero, and I've loved superheroes and villains ever since I've been old enough to understand what they were. I can't remember a time when I didn't read comics.

Honey Lemon, what kind of music do you like?

My favourite artist is Cavetown. I love his voice and his lyrics, I think they're really beautiful. Especially 'things that make it warm' and 'feb 14.' I also love all those other artists in that kind of genre, mxmtoon, Ricky Montgomery, Tessa Violet, dodie, Clairo, beebadoobee, Conan Gray, Sody. They're like indie, bedroom pop kind of music. I can highly recommend!

Hiro, if you could change one thing about the last 3 years, what would it be?

Is there an 'all of the above' option? I guess out of everything, I wish I had listened. Listen to everything everyone had told me instead of just ignoring them and pretending like I hadn't heard it. I wish I'd listened to Rena and Tadashi when they said I could tell them anything. I wish I'd listened to my Aunt Cass. I wish I had listened to my friends. I regret that. I think things would have been a lot different if I had.

Tadashi, do you ever wish you weren't the oldest sibling?

Yeah. Sometimes I do. It would be nice to not have as many responsibilities and be 'in charge.' But at the same time, despite everything, I don't think I would change my place.

Rena, would you rather be able to fly but always have to wear high heels, or be able to breath underwater but not be able to eat any seafood?

Definitely the second one. First of all, I have Baymax. Do I really need to be able to fly? Also high heels are gross and uncomfortable and I hate wearing them. As much as I love seafood, I would happily give it up to breathe underwater. I have a fear of deep water and drowning, and if I could breathe underwater there would be no problem! So yeah. Definitely the second one.

Books or movies?

Rena: Books

Tadashi: Books

Hiro: Movies

Fred: Movies

Wasabi: Books

Honey Lemon: Books

Gogo: Movies

Caine: Movies

What's your favourite book?

Rena: Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson. I also love Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar.'

Tadashi: The Great Gatsby.

Hiro: The Screaming Staircase - the first book in the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathon Stroud.

Fred: Assuming that this isn't counting comics, I'm gonna say Percy Jackson. Specifically, the Sea of Monsters. It's one of the only proper book series I've read and actually enjoyed.

Wasabi: I'm gonna be boring and say Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Honey Lemon: Anything by John Green!

Gogo: The Hunger Games.

Caine: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

What is your favourite food?

Rena: My Aunt Cass's handmade muffins. Specifically the blueberry ones.

Tadashi: Coffee and walnut cake. Especially when it's homemade.

Hiro: Aunt Cass's hot wings. They're so spicy but they are so good.

Fred: PIZZA!

Wasabi: Probably sushi.

HoneyLemon: Sweet and salted popcorn!

Gogo: Nothing's better than a good old fashioned cheeseburger.

Caine: Chips. Crisps. Whatever you wanna call them, the thin crispy ones. I love pretty much every single flavour out there but specifically salt and vinegar is the best.

What is your least favourite food?

Rena: Mac and cheese. I know, I know. I hate it though, cheese sauce makes me gag.

Tadashi: Cucumber. I like it thinly sliced in a sandwich or something, but other than that it's disgusting.

Hiro: Pickles are disgusting and I won't be taking any debate because I'm right.

Fred: Salad. It's so gross and wet and I don't. understand how Honey Lemon is always eating it.

Wasabi: Wasabi. I only spilt a little bit on my shirt, and it's haunted me ever since.

Honey Lemon: I hate pineapple. I don't like the taste or the way it makes your tongue feel.

Gogo: Jelly beans. Hate them.

Caine: Sardines. I had to eat a tin of them after losing a dare and I puked my guts up. Never again.

Favourite animal?

Rena: Foxes! I just think they're neat.

Tadashi: I'm 100% a cat person to be honest.

Hiro: I like dogs! Particularly labradors.

Fred: Lizards!

Wasabi: Tortoises. I feel like I can relate to them on some level.

Honey Lemon: I really love bunnies! They're so fluffy and so adorable!

Gogo: I don't know, cheetahs are pretty cool.

Caine: I like parrots. I had one when I was a kid. He was called Bob.

Favourite childhood memory?

Rena: I was supposed to be at one of my friend's houses for a sleepover in middle school, but instead we were just sat at the park until around 3am playing on the swings and messing about. It was fun! There was nobody else there and we could do whatever we wanted. She did my makeup when we were sat at the top of the slide and I showed her my favourite songs on my old iPod.

Tadashi: Probably the Christmas before our parents died. The day itself was lovely, we had loads of food and played games and had a dance battle. I tried champagne for the first time. It was gross, but nine year old me was loving it. I also got a 'make your own robot kit.' I swear, I spent all of boxing day on that kit. I was so proud of that tiny robot, and I guess it was where I first realised how much I loved robotics.

Hiro: Tadashi and Rena took me to a waterpark when Tadashi learnt to drive. It was great! Apart from when Tadashi went down the biggest slide and vomited into the swimming pool. To be fair though, that was hilarious. He was pretty embarrassed though, and we left pretty quickly after that. On the way home we stopped and bought loads of water balloons and had a fight in this car park. I won.

Fred: When my Dad took me on a tour of his superhero headquarters for the first time, when I was about eight or nine. I almost blew my arm off touching a flamethrower but it was way worth it. His headquarters is the coolest thing I've ever seen and I wish he would let me in there more often.

Wasabi: I went to Iceland when I was ten. The mountains were beautiful and I've never been anywhere prettier. I'm going back one day, mark my words!

Honey Lemon: I went to Disney land when I was ten. It was the best week of my life and I've been chasing that high ever since. I've still got the photos of me and all the Disney princesses!

Gogo: I went to a stunt show when I was seven with my dad. It was the one thing that inspired me to start skating, as corny as it sounds. I just loved all the stunts and everyone jumping through hoops of fire.

Caine: Going to the beach when I was six or seven. I know that's probably pretty boring, but it was the best. Making sandcastles and diving in the sea. And the ice cream! I haven't been to the beach in years.

Do you have any siblings?

Fred: Nope! Only child!

Wasabi: I have a two sisters, both younger than me. They're twins, and they've just turned eleven.

Honey Lemon: I have an older sister, but we don't talk that much anymore. She's twenty four.

Gogo: Two older brothers, both in their early twenties. They're a right pain in the ass.

Caine: One older brother. I haven't seen him in about four or five years now, but he's twenty two.

Least favourite childhood memory?

Rena: I don't know, your parents dying in a car crash kinda takes the number one spot.

Tadashi: I'd have to say my parent's funeral. I gave their eulogy, despite only being eight. It's a memory I'd rather not want to revisit.

Hiro: I don't remember the car crash or anything, so I'd have to say walking into high school for the first time and experiencing the crushing realisation that it wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be.

Fred: My Dad got injured once fighting some kind of supervillain. I don't remember much about it because I was so small, but I do remember sitting by his bedside and not knowing why he wouldn't wake up. I didn't understand at the time, but it's scary to think how close he had gotten.

Wasabi: My Grandma dying when I was eleven. I was the last to find out - nobody wanted to break it to me at first. I remember walking in the room to see my Dad crying and he refused to tell me why. My Mom told me and to this day me and my Dad have never spoken about it.

Honey Lemon: I know it sounds silly, but my rabbit died when I was ten. She was called Fluffy and I cried for weeks afterwards.

Gogo: My Dad left when I was ten. One day we woke up and he was just gone, so signs that he'd ever been there in the first place. I don't like to talk about it because he's a worthless piece of shit that doesn't deserve the time of the day.

Caine: There's a lot, but my Mom dying takes the number one spot I guess.

Have you ever been in love?

Rena: I mean... Clara...

Tadashi: No I don't... I don't think so. Sure, I've had crushes on people. But I don't think it's love. It might not have even been a proper crush. I don't know. Perhaps I will fall in love one day.

Hiro: No. I mean, I haven't really been around other teenagers my age. I started high school when I was 10, it wasn't exactly I was falling in love with the kids who were like... 5 years older than me. Besides, that shit is gross. I'll stick with my robotics, thanks.

Fred: There's this... person. I see them a lot, and I know they're definitely not interested in me. Like, at all. But... I don't know. They're just so perfect. So sweet, and so kind. I mean, no one ever takes me seriously. But this person does. They listen! And they're also one of the only ones that can play video games with me and sit through movies whilst I talk throughout.

Wasabi: Man I don't know! I mean, I can't decide what to have for lunch, let alone whether or not I'm in love with someone! Not gonna lie, I'm not really one for romance. Sure, there are cool people out there that I'd love to date. But... yeah. I don't know.

Honey Lemon: There was this dude in my maths class in senior year. Jack, he was called. He was... so sweet. And so hot. And he always talked to me everyday. I used to leave little notes in his locker! I don't know if he ever found out that it was me. I wonder where he is now. He was so lovely.

Gogo: Nah. Guys bore me. I've had the odd crush on some people in high school but overall? I can't be arsed with them. I mean, there was this person in high school though...

Caine: I mean, I've spent half my adolescent years with Jason and his gang. Marissa was nice and all and I definitely liked her, but I don't think that was necessarily love. I don't know if I'm in love with Rena. You know, sometimes I think I might be...

What's a weird memory that will always stick in your mind?

Rena: After our parents died and we had been bandaged up at the hospital, they took us to a McDonald's. Literally before anything else, like the adults thought it would make everything better for some reason? Anyway, I remember walking up to the counter with this social worker who was trying to sort out care for us. She was on the phone to Aunt Cass discussing childcare details or whatever and the cashier looked at the three of us. We must have looked a right sight. Wearing dirty clothes. Probably crying. Injured. Me holding Tadashi's hand. Tadashi carrying Hiro, who was asleep on his shoulder. Orphans. That's what we were. Orphans. Anyway. This cashier says 'hello kids! Welcome to McDonald's! Are you having a great day?' because y'know.. we were kids. Kids are meant to be joyful. I distinctly remember Tadashi looking this woman in the eye and saying 'our parents just died in a car crash. So no. We're not really having a great day, thank you very much.' And the cashier just stares at him for a minute. Then, the realisation slowly dawns and she claps a hand to her face. Then the sobbing starts. Seriously, she's crying and crying and apologising and asking if we're okay. A manager comes over and after a bit of an explanation he gives us each a free McFlurry. It's funny. No one tells you that when your parents die you get free ice cream. Did they think that would make everything better? Free ice cream? It didn't even taste of anything. It just tasted... Cold. I don't think I even got halfway through it. It's weird that this is one of the things that I remember the most. I guess it was the first time that everything sank in. The first time I realised the full momentum of the crash, and what it would mean for us. Something so mundane in the extraordinary. Free ice cream.

Tadashi: I don't remember much about the fire. Pretty much as soon as I ran into the building, my lungs were full of smoke and I could barely see anything. I don't remember what happened in there. No matter how hard people want me to remember. I just... can't. But I do remember one thing. An image. A single flash of colour. I was standing in the entrance way, a wall of orange and red around me. Despite the smell and the heat, it was beautiful. I know I'll never see anything like it again. I was mesmerised by the swirling colours, almost hypnotised. I could hear Rena screaming behind me and the sounds of the crackling. Then, everything went black. I think I was too out of it to realise the building was about to explode. I couldn't move. Definitely weird. And I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my head.

Hiro: When I woke up in the hospital after Rena and Tadashi finding me in the bathroom, they didn't say anything. I was expecting tears or grovelling or pleading or something. But no. Rena placed a bottle of lemonade in my hand and said she picked it up because she knew it was my favourite. I wanted to tell them how sorry I was, but I couldn't find the words. So, instead, we sat and drank lemonade and didn't say anything. Not for hours and hours. And it was weird because it wasn't what I was expecting. We just... sat. Enjoyed one another's company. It was nice. Words came later.

Fred: I swear on my life I saw a ghost. I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep when the door creaked open. Someone whispered my name and despite being freaked, I still followed the voice down the hallway. Well, I got down to the kitchen and there was a pizza box FLOATING IN THE AIR! I ran and grabbed it because nobody touches my pizza and then the voice disappeared. So I was haunted by a ghost who got pissed at me when I took my pizza back. It's not my fault! That pizza was rightfully mine! They had no right whatsoever.

Wasabi: A bird landed on my head in the middle of class in sixth grade. It just kinda sat there as I was screaming and everyone was making a huge fuss. My teacher eventually had to literally grab it with both hands and throw it out the window. I don't know why the bird did that and I'm still angry that he chose me out of anyone in that room. For almost a year everyone called me 'Bird Head' and I was convinced I would never be able to live it down.

Honey Lemon: Probably the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me was meeting Danny DeVito in Target. He was behind me in the checkout and paid for my lunch when I didn't have enough change on me. No one ever seems to believe me when I tell them, and at this point I'm convinced that he's a figment of my imagination.

Gogo: I was skateboarding and this car came out of nowhere and smacked right into me. I landed on the floor, picked up my skateboard and ran. Not a single scratch. I'm not complaining that I was so lucky, but I still can't believe I didn't even break anything. I probably gave the driver a heart attack. Whoops.

Caine: When I first got my licence, I was driving around a corner when suddenly I hit someone on a skateboard. It scared the life out of me, but by the time I'd opened the door to see if they were okay they were up and running away from me. I hope they were okay, but if I'm honest I'm glad they ran away. I was convinced I'd end up in a cell next to my brother.

Questions for me! (Thank you to the lovely person on who messaged me with questions about me that was really sweet!)

Which of the characters is your favourite? Obviously I didn't create Wasabi, Hiro, Honey Lemon, etc. So I think I'm biased when I say my favourite is Rena. I absolutely adore all of them I think they're wonderful, but I love Rena so much. And she's mine! I created her. I also love Tadashi. I fell in love with him in the film (not literally LMAO) and it was actually devastating when he died. I'm still not over it. Personally I think he's the best characters Disney has ever created.

How do you get in the right frame of mind to write? One thing - music. I listen to music when I'm writing. Mostly movie soundtracks (my favourite one to listen to is How to Train Your Dragon cos I have the vinyl) or game soundtracks like Mario Kart and Minecraft. I've also created a playlist for each of the key characters. It helps to get to know them better, which then makes writing them easier. Obviously most of these characters aren't mine, but I've still made the playlists anyway. Below are a few key songs from each!

Rena: Line without a hook (Ricky Montgomery), 4AM (Bears in Trees), Smells like Teen Spirit, Teenage Dirtbag, She (dodie), I wanna be with you (chloe moriondo) The 411 (Bears in Trees), Coffee's for closures (Fall out Boy).

Tadashi: Flashlight (The Front Bottoms), Pothole (Modern Baseball), Home (Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeroes), Telescope (Cavetown), O Children (Nick Cave and the Bad seeds), Another One of Those Days (Cavetown)

Hiro: Trying (Cavetown), Boys will be Bugs (Cavetown), Centuries (Fall out Boy), Famous Last Words (MCR), I Write Sins Not Tragedies (Panic!), How to Save a Life (The Fray), Achilles Come down (Gang of Youths), Reverberate (Bears in Trees)

Fred: Centuries (Fall out Boy), Immortals (Fall out Boy), Tribute (Tenacious D), Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns N' Roses), Pyro (The Rills), She's Kinda Hot (5SOS), American Idiot (Green Day)

Wasabi: Not gonna lie Wasabi is just Queen. He has those vibes and I feel like that's all he would listen to!

Honey Lemon: Seaside (Bears in Trees), The Elements (Tom Lehrer), Heather (Conan Gray), Human (dodie), prom dress (mxmtoon), no faker (mxmtoon), Snail (Cavetown), Meteor Shower (Cavetown), Into the Unknown (Frozen II soundtrack), This is Me (Greatest Showman).

Gogo: Fluorescent Adolescent (Artic Monkeys), Have it All (Foo Fighters), All The Small Things (Blink-182), The (Shipped) Gold Standard (Fall Out Boy), The Sharpest Lives (MCR), Mama (MCR),

Caine: God and Satan (Biffy Clyro), Line without a hook (Ricky Montgomery), There is a light that never goes out (The Smiths), La Jolla (wilbur), Jubilee Line (wilbur), The 411 (Bears in Trees), Charmless Man (Blur), Ghosts (deafpony)


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